Archana GODBOLE

Dr. Archana Godboleis the Founder Director of the Pune based NGO- Applied Environmental Research Foundation (AERF).A Plant Taxonomist and Ethnobiologist by training, she has developed various programmes of AERF through the work on the ground for the last 28 years.  She has been responsible for developing various programmes and initiatives of AERF and has represented the NGO on many national as well as international fora.

Dr. Godbole has worked with indigenous communities from North-East India for six years, documenting traditional knowledge that has been used for sustainable natural resources management. Through AERF, she now focuses on promoting indigenous  people’s partnerships and champions the cause of addressing  food security , food sovereignty and climate change issues .

Dr. Godbole firmly believes in Civil Society action beyond thinking and research. Being a Civil Society Observer of Climate Investment Funds (The World Bank ),  for nine years  she is constantly trying to influence international processes  through effective civil society networks in  South Asia  and Pacific.

She has developed a Northern Western Ghats Conservation Network of organisations working for conservation in the area since 2011 and is part of the ‘Save the Western Ghats'   group, which is an informal congregation of organisations and individuals working for advocacy and action for people and conservation in the 6 states of Western Ghats.

Dr. Godbole is an invited NGO member representative of Clinton Global Initiative and AERF’s commitment on Safeguarding Forests and Biodiversity of north Western Ghats has been felicitated in CGI annual meeting of 2011. 

Dr, Archana  has received the prestigious Whitley Associate Award in 2007 for her long term work on Conservation of Sacred Forests in the Northern Western Ghats. She is   a LEAD fellow (Leadership for Environment and Development) which is a global network of more than 3000 professionals with expertise of almost every discipline.

Maintaining sacred forests as a strategy of adaption, linking them to private forest conservation has been successfully initiated and pursued by Dr. Godbole since the inception of AERF in 1995.Under her leadership AERF developed innovative approaches of green enterprises and inking conservation with businesses for mainstreaming biodiversity conservation. Archana is a passionate conservation practitioner, always thinking and testing solutions for sustaining biodiversity conservation. 

Dr. Godbole   represented IUCN (The International Union for Conservation of Nature) as a part of two member mission to assess the Mongolian Government’s proposal of Burkhan Khaldan Mountain ranges for the UNESCO world heritage site and specifically studied the sacred sites within this proposed nomination.

Constantly working for innovative approaches for conservation on the ground has been her commitment of life.