Social Sciences and Conservation Specialist
janasudeep@gmail.com
Sudeep Jana Thing holds PhD in Social Sciences from Curtin University, Western Australia. His PhD research is a critical ethnography of Sonaha ethnic minorities in the lower Karnali River Delta and the Baridia National Park management in lowland Nepal, and contributes to the political ecology of conservation and indigenous peoples; spatial politics and conservation conflicts. Findings of his PhD research have been published in peer-reviewed journal, conference paper, and two book chapters. While maintaining affiliations with ForestAction, Nepal he currently teaches geography at Curtin University, Western Australia and supports organisations of indigenous peoples in documenting and promoting their biocultural conservation practice. He is an honorary member of ICCA Consortium and serves as a council member with special responsibility for South Asia (https://www.iccaconsortium.org/) . He also served as a co-vice chair of Young Professionals Group of the IUCN World Commission on Protected Areas between 2010 and 2014 and contributed to the New Generation Stream of 2014 World Parks Congress. He has a research experience since 2004 in state-local people contestations, local resistance and social movements, human rights, equity, social justice, governance, sustainable livelihoods in relation to conservation and protected areas as well as indigenous peoples’ and local community conserved areas and territories in Nepal.
Publications
Book chapters
Thing, S.J. (2020). Riverscape as Biocultural Heritage: A Local Indigenous Social Movement Contesting a National Park in Nepal. In A. Mozaffari & T.Jones (Eds.), Heritage movements in Asia. Cultural heritage activism, politics, and identity. (pp.123-146). New York and Oxford: Berghahn.
Thing, S.J. (2019). Politics of Conservation, Moral Ecology and Resistance by the Sonaha Indigenous Minorities of Nepal. In C.Griffan, R.Jones, & I.Robertson (Eds.), Moral Ecologies – Histories of Conservation, Dispossession and Resistance. (pp.37-58). Cham: Palgrave Macmillan.
Rai, J., & Thing, S.J.(2016). A Biocultural Perspective on the Recognition and Support for Sacred Natural Sites in Nepal. In B.Verschuuren & N. Furuta (Eds.), Asian Sacred Natural Sites, Philosophy and Practice in Protected Areas and Conservation (pp. 81-92). London: Routledge.
Jana, S. (2009). Rights Based Approaches to Natural Resource Management in Buffer Zone Community Forests: Learning from the grassroots. In J. Campese, T. Sunderland, T. Greiber & G. Oviedo (Eds.), Rights-based Approaches: Exploring Issues and Opportunities for Conservation (pp. 185-202). Bogor: CIFOR.
Peer-reviewed journal articles
Thing, S.J., Jones, R. & Birdsall Jones, C. (2017). The Politics of Conservation: Sonaha, Riverscape in the Bardia National Park and Buffer Zone, Nepal. Conservation & Society, 15(3), 292-303.
Thing, S.J., & Poudel, B.S. (2017). Buffer Zone Community Forestry in Nepal: Examining Tenure and Management Outcomes. Journal of Forest and Livelihood, 15(1), 57-70.
Bishwokarma, D., Thing, S.J. & Paudel, N.S. 2016. Political Ecology of the Chure Region in Nepal. Journal of Forest and Livelihood, 14(1), 84-96.
Ojha, H. R., Khatri, D. B., Shrestha, K. K., Bhattarai, B., Baral, J. C., Basnett, B. S., Goutam, K., Sunam, R., Banjade, M.R., Jana, S., …. Paudel, D. (2016).Can Evidence and Voice Influence Policy? A Critical Assessment of Nepal’s Forestry Sector Strategy, 2014. Society & Natural Resources, 29(3), 357-373.
Ojha, H. R., Banjade, M. R., Sunam, R. K., Bhattarai, B., Jana, S., Goutam, K. R., & Dhungana, S. (2014). Can authority change through deliberative politics?: Lessons from the four decades of participatory forest policy reform in Nepal. Forest Policy and Economics, 46, 1-9.
Paudel, N. S., Jana, S., & Khatiwada, B. (2012). Contestation and Citizen-Led Negotiation Around the Establishment of Protected Areas in Nepal Himalaya. Journal of Forest and Livelihood, 10(1), 42-57. doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.3126/jfl.v10i1.8600
Paudel, N. S., Jana, S., & Rai, J. K. (2012). Contested Law: Slow Response to Demands for Reformulating Protected Area Legal Framework in Nepal. Journal of Forest and Livelihood, 10(1), 88-100. doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.3126/jfl.v10i1.8603
Jana, S., Koss, R., & Faccer, K. (2009). Durban +5 and Beyond: Locating and Integrating Youth Perspective. Parks, 17(2), 43-50. Jana, S. (2007). Voices from the Margins: Human Rights Crisis in Protected Areas of Nepal. Policy Matters, 15, 87-99.
Conference Paper (published)
Thing, S.J. (2018). Politics of Nature Conservation and Space National Park, River, and Sonaha Ethnic Minorities. In Social Science Baha (Ed.), Conference Proceedings 2013: The Annual Kathmandu Conference on Nepal & The Himalaya (pp. 146-171). Kathmandu: Himal Books.
Technical research outputs
Thing, S. J., Biswokarma, D., & Poudel, N. S. (2016). Chure Conservation and Community Forests in Nepal: Policy Pathways and Consequences on Collective Actions. Forest Action Policy Brief, 42 (December), 1-4. Retrieved from http://www.forestaction.org/publications/view/218
Jana, S & Paudel, N.S. (2010). Rediscovering Indigenous Peoples and Community Conserved Areas in Nepal. Lalitpur, Nepal: ForestAction Nepal. Retrieved from http://www.forestaction.org/publications/view/53
Jana, S. (2009). Community Conserved Areas in South Asia: Nepal. Kalpavriksh: Pune, India. Retrieved from https://www.iccaconsortium.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/kalpavriksh_nepal_report.pdf
Jana, S. (2008). Protecting People in Protected Areas: Recapitulating Rights Campaign in Lowland Protected Areas of Nepal. Kathmandu: Community Development Organization (CDO) and the Press Unlimited.
Jana, S. (2007). Working Towards Environmental Justice: an Indigenous Fishing Minority’s Movement in Chitwan National Park, Nepal. Lalitpur, Nepal: International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development (ICIMOD).
Thapaliya, A., Jana, S., & Ghimire, S. (2005). Local struggle towards grassroots democracy: A Case of Terai Dalit Movement for Right to Community Forestry in Eastern Nepal. UK: RAPID Program, Overseas Development Institute. Retrieved from: http://www.odi.org.uk/rapid/projects/ppa0104/natural_resources_2.html
Bhattarai, A., and Jana, S. (2005). Grass Roots Organization Engaging Conservation Agency: Case Study of Indigenous Fishing Communities Right to Fishing in South Central Nepal. UK: RAPID Program, Overseas Development Institute (ODI). Retrieved from: http://www.odi.org.uk/rapid/projects/ppa0104/natural_resources.html