Shalini DHYANI

Shalini Dhyani is a Principal Scientist at the Environmental Impact Assessment, Audit and Policy Division of CSIR-National Environmental Engineering Research Institute, Nagpur, India.

Shalini is known for her research spanning over twenty years on conservation of forest ecosystems, restoration of degraded landscapes using nature-based solutions for disaster risk reduction, climate adaptations, and urban sustainability concerns for developing socio-ecological resilience, with several pivotal research and popular publications on these topics. Dr. Shalini’s research contributions have provided practical solutions for developing socio-ecological resilience by integrating modern scientific approaches, with traditional knowledge systems. Her interdisciplinary work on diverse ecosystems combines field-based biodiversity studies, participatory social studies, indigenous and local knowledge systems, remote sensing, ecosystem modelling, and integration of science policy. Shalini is recognised for her comprehensive work in different parts of Asia in exploring, assessing, and highlighting the relevance of socio-ecological concerns in shaping the natural and human-dominated landscapes.

Her works on interlinkages between socio-ecological systems, ecosystem health assessments, using diverse knowledge systems, and interdisciplinary approaches by involving diverse stakeholders, by providing incentives to develop practical climate-sensitive restoration models, have helped reduce land degradation and secure co-benefits. Sustainability Science, Science Policy Research, and Indigenous & Traditional Knowledge Systems are her core expertise, and her work has highlighted the relevance of mainstreaming biodiversity and ecosystem-inclusive decision-making for Disaster Risk Reduction and Climate Adaptations in the Global South.

For her interdisciplinary research and practice, she has received awards that include the IUCN CEM Chair’s first young professional award, 2014; Asian Rural Women's Coalition (ARWC), Malaysia ,2011; SAARC Forestry Centre, Bhutan, 2014; Special Recognition by Chair IUCN CEM, 2021; Winner, Forest Harvest CBNE Forum 2021; UNESCO-TWAS Associateship Award 2022, and 2024 PMs Agenda 3 on women’s role in disaster risk reduction by NIDM and Ministry of Home Affairs, India. She also got the opportunity to speak in the UNGA during the midterm review of the Sendai Framework, 2023. She has written 60+ research publications, including in Nature, Ecology and Evolution (invited by the journal for midterm review of SDG 15 along with CBD and Ramsar Secretary), Npj Biodiversity, Restoration and Sustainability, Energy Review,s and Frontiers in Ecology and Environment. She is one of the renowned scientists in the field of ecology in India.

In addition to academic writing, she is deeply interested in writing popular science articles for communicating science to the masses. She has written several popular articles in English and also in Hindi, and one was translated into Malayalam. She is a well-known public speaker and writer on issues of Ecosystem-based Approaches, Biodiversity Conservation, Urban Sustainability, and Restoration at various national and international platforms, and many of those are available in the public domain, and anchors the IUCN CEM’s activities on the Red List of Ecosystems and Nature-based Solutions in India. She is also the editor of important books on Nature-based Solutions in Asia, Blue-Green Infrastructure, Forest Resilience, Ecosystem modelling, and Urban Foraging.

Shalini is CLA for the upcoming IPBES Second Global Assessment and was also Lead Author for the IPBES Asia-Pacific Regional Assessment, Sustainable Use Assessment. She was also a scoping expert and Lead Author for IUFRO on the Forest Resilience and ICIMOD report on Springsheds as well as Rangelands and Pastoralism in the Hindukush Himalayas. She engages with international science and policy through her involvement as a Vice Chair, Asia, and Steering Committee member of the IUCN Commission on Ecosystems Management. She is involved as an expert with the Bureau of Indian Standards for mountain landslide reduction, WRI FOLU-India initiative as a steering committee member, and as a mentor with the WRI Cityfix project in Mumbai, as well as in the editorial board of the journals Sustainability Science, Restoration Ecology, and Agroforestry Systems. She is also visiting Scientist at CIFOR, Indonesia, as a UNESCO-TWAS Associate.