Trained as an ecological anthropologist, over the past 15 years I have been studying the historical ecology of a rainforest valley in Indonesian Borneo, documenting the ethnobiological knowledge of Penan Benalui hunter-gatherers and Kenyah swidden agriculturalists, elucidating the causes and consequences of trade in wildlife and plants, and developing theory and methods for an applied conservation social science.

I have served as an ethnobiology consultant to a CIFOR project examining Multipurpose Landscape Assessment, worked in northern Vietnam (2001) for Flora and Fauna International, and collaborated on Global Diversity Foundation research and training projects in Morocco (Wildlife trade in Southern Morocco), Namibia (Kalahari Garden Project), and Sabah, Malaysia (Ethnobiology of proposed traditional use zones in Crocker Range Park, Participatory approaches to nominating Crocker Range Biosphere Reserve).

Most recently, my Phd students and I are working on local adaptation to climatic variability (El Nino) and climate change in Sarawak, Sabah and Kalimantan. I am also a co-investigator on the ESPA funded project Human Adaptation to Biodiversity Change, 2010-2011, which will take me to the Western Ghats of India for field research in 2011.

Recent Publications:

Puri, R.K. 2010. Documenting Local Environmental Knowledge and Change. InConducting Research in Conservation: A Social Science Perspective, ed. Helen Newing. London: Routledge.

Puri, R.K. 2010. Participant Observation. In Conducting Research in Conservation: A Social Science Perspective, ed. Helen Newing. London: Routledge.

Puri, R.K. 2010. Participatory Mapping. In Conducting Research in Conservation: A Social Science Perspective, ed. Helen Newing. London: Routledge.

Pardo de Santayana, Manuel, Pieroni, Andrea and Puri, Rajindra K., eds. 2010. Ethnobotany in the New Europe: people, health and minor plant resource pools. Oxford: Berghahn Books.

M. Pardo de Santayana, A. Pieroni and R.K Puri 2010. The biocultural dynamism of Europe, past and present. In The dynamics of biocultural diversity in the New Europe: people, health and minor plant resource pools, eds., Manuel Pardo de Santayana, Andrea Pieroni and Rajindra K. Puri. Pp 1-15. Oxford: Berghahn Books.

MA/MSc

Convenor of MA/MSc in Environmental Anthropology

Teach on the following modules:

SE831: Environmental Anthropology

BA

Teach on the following modules

SE306: Animals, People and Plants

SE308: Skills for Anthropology and Conservation

SE594: Anthropology and Development

Current Projects

Local Knowledge, Science and the Environment: how and why people respond to climate change

Previous Projects

Biocultural Diversity in the Rainforests of Central Borneo

Interactive Methods for Ethnographic Research on Ecological Knowledge: rattan and basketry knowledge in East Kalimantan (Illustrative slide show)

Traditional Knowledge and Water Management Practices

I coordinate an annual two week Erasmus Intensive Programme, Biocultural Diversity of local people and migrants in Europe: Concepts and Interdisciplinary Methods, for a consortium of 10 universities in Europe.

In September 2010, I convened a seminar 'New Directions in Urgent Anthropology' that brought together past and present fellows of the RAI's Urgent Anthropology Fellowship to discuss their work, its impacts, and future needs and directions.