Bruce Donald

"Socioeconomic and equity implications of other effective area-based conservation measures in community-managed forests" (Leverhulme Doctoral Scholars)

Bruce is a first year PhD student working on the social-ecological dimensions of conservation through the lens of other effective area based conservation measures (OECMs). Working with partners from Forest Action Nepal, Bruce’s research will investigate community forest areas in Nepal to assess their potential as OECMs from a rights based and biocultural perspective.

He welcomes any contact from researchers and practitioners working in his area of research wishing to collaborate.

"Bruce’s interests relate to how conservation projects impact people and how to improve the abilities of conservation to work alongside IPLCs through co-management of biodiversity.

His research interests are heavily influenced by the work of international scholars on rights-based and decolonised approaches to conservation as well as his student experience in Scotland, where he studied collective land management policies in the Highlands and Islands from the perspective of multiple sustainable development indicators, and the challenges and opportunities related to indigenous co-management of biodiversity.

His PhD research is focussed on Community Forestry in Nepal and its shifting priorities in the face of social transformations and the political aspects of conservation. This is much supported by his primary supervisor Dr Mahesh Poudyal who hails from Nepal and has studied this land management system extensively in his own research.
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Dr Mahesh Poudyal and Dr Matthew Struebig