Being grown up in a Nepalese village, I have experienced closely the role of forests on subsistence economy, which partly led me to pursue undergraduate study in Forestry Sciences from Tribhuwan University (Institute of Forestry) in Nepal. Upon completion of BSc in 1994, I initially worked as an Agro-ecological Research Site Coordinator at Lumle Agricultural Research Centre, a centre funded by the then ODA of the British Government, for 3 years (1995-1998) and later worked with the Government of Nepal (Department of Forests) as a Forester for 3 years (1998-2001). The Fulbright Scholarship in 2001 took me to the State University of New York, College of Environmental Sciences and Forestry to pursue Master’s degree in Forest Resources Management. As a part of Master’s thesis I conducted a research to examine the impacts of Community Forestry on forest products supply and environmental outcomes among selected community forests in Nepal. A PhD research assistantship offer from Auburn University to work on ‘human dimensions of species fragility’ took me to Auburn in 2003 for an Applied Economics PhD, which I completed in 2007. With the change in focus from forest resource management to applied economics, I studied economics and statistics while pursuing PhD that eventually led me to earn MS in Economics and MS in Probability and Statistics degrees. In my PhD research, I analysed socio-economic determinants of threatened species among countries using spatial econometric techniques. Then prior to joining UWA in 2009, I spent 2 years at Auburn as a Postdoctoral Fellow working on an urban forestry project that examined the economic impact of tree shade on energy consumption in urban homes.

Welfare impacts of conservation policies
Evidence informed policy making
Environmental sustainability and sustainability standards
Ecotourism and human dimensions of wildlife
Biodiversity economics and finance
Natural Capital Accounting
Payment for ecosystem services
Valuation of threatened species
Valuation of urban greenery
Forest economics and policy
Land degradation and restoration
Sustainable land mangement practices
Effectivenss of land degradation responses

[13] 2025 CI Evidence-based policy making on nature in Nepal: Assessing the impact of large international assessments, British Academy’s Evidence Informed Policy Making grant with Nibedita Mukherjee of Brunel University in UK, and Rajesh K Rai of Tribhuvan University in Nepal (£145,730.75 = @AU$ 300,000)  
[12] 2024 CI “Study into a Natural Capital Asset Company equity structure to transform Western Australia” with Tom Picton-Warlow, Anne Marino, Fiona Dempster, Lizzy Lowe - The South-West WA Drought Resilience Adoption and Innovation Hub (SW WA Drought Hub), managed by Grower Group Alliance (AU$195,100)
[11] 2023 PI “Impact Evaluation of Landscape Approach of Biodiversity Conservation on Household Welfare and Wildlife Conservation in Nepal” Hokkaido University, Re-Challenge Grant for top-ranked but unfunded JSPS Scientific Research Category B Project with Yoko Saito (Hokkaido University) (JPN 750,000 = @AU$ 8,000)
[10] 2023 CI “Updating the DCCEEW Offsets Calculator”, Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water (DCCEEW) (AU$ 146,062) with David Pannell, Clair Doll, and Diane Jarvis
[9] 2022 PI "The impacts of commodity price increase on household welfare: The case of South Sulawesi, Indonesia" with Anas Iswanto Anwar, Universitas Hasunuddin; DFAT, Australia Indonesia Centre, PAIR: Partnership for Australia-Indonesia Research, AICPAIRTWP16 (AU$ 40,720)
[8] 2020 PI “Impact Evaluation of Protected Area Management Policy on Household Welfare in Nepal” with Yoko Saito and Takumi Kondo, Hokkaido University; KAKENHI – Grants in Aid Program of the Japanese Society for Promotion of Science (JSPS), (JY 4,920,000 = ~AU$64,000)
[7] 2019 CI “Essays on the Economics of Soil Quality in Pakistan’s Punjab: Productive Efficiency, Adoption (or dis-adoption) and Willingness to Pay for Land Restoration Schemes” with Amin Mugera and Asjad Tariq Sheikh; International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI), Washington D.C., USA US$42,757 (AU$63,608)
[6] 2019 CI “Project 6.6  - Key factors for effective partner integration and governance for threatened species recovery” with Stephen Garnett (CDU), Simon Nally (Department of Environment), John Woinarski (CDU), Rachel Morgain (ANU); National Environmental Science Program, Threatened Species Recovery Hub, Department of the Environment and Energy, Australian Government, AU$130,000 NESP (AU$44,000 In-kind), 2019-2020.
[5] 2015 CI “Threatened Species Recovery Hub” with David Pannell, Richard Hobbs and Nicola Mitchell, University of Queensland ex-National Environmental Science Program NESP, Department of the Environment and Energy, Australian Government, AU$1,508,010.00, 2015-2020.
[4] 2015 [Co-Project Leader] of “Project 6.1 Quantifying benefits and costs of threatened-species management in rural and regional economies”, with David Pannell, Kerstin Zander (CDU) and Stephen Garnett (CDU); National Environmental Science Program, Threatened Species Recovery Hub, Department of the Environment and Energy, Australian Government, AU$503,000 (AU$826,048 In-kind), 2015-2020.
[3] 2013 PI ‘Forests, Ecosystem Services and Communities: Lessons from Nepal Himalaya’, UWA Research Collaboration Award, AU$ 11,583 (with R. Marchant of York, S. Sallu of Leeds).
[2] 2012-2013 CI ‘Resilient pasts and sustainable futures? The social-ecological dynamics of East African landscapes in temporal, spatial and social perspectives’, World Universities Network Development Fund, £20K (with R. Marchant of York, S. Sallu of Leeds and Petra Tschakert of Penn State).
[1] 2011-2012 PI ‘The value of urban trees in the Perth metropolitan area: a hedonic analysis of home sale prices, UWA Research Development Award, AU$ 24,178 (with M. Polyakov and R. Sadler).

2024-2026: Research Director (Biodiversity Economics & Finance), The Western Australian Biodiversity Science Institute, Perth, Australia

IPBES Roles: Bonn, Germany
2025-2028: Co-ordinating Lead Author, Second Global Assessment of Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services
2021-2024: Lead Author, Transformative Change Assessment
2019-2021: Lead Author (Invited), IPCC-IPBES Co-sponsored workshop on biodiversity and climate change
2018-2022: Lead Author, Values Assessment
2015-2018: Co-ordinating Lead Author, Thematic Assessment of Land Degradation and Restoration
2015-2018: Lead Author, Regional Assessment of Biodiversity and
Ecosystem Services in Asia-Pacific
2014-2017: Expert, Conceptualization of value and developing 
methodological guideline and scoping report for values assessment

08/2007-06/2009: Postdoctoral Fellow, Auburn University, USA
08/2003-07/2007: Graduate Research Assistant, Auburn University, USA
08/1998-07/2001: Forest Officer, Department of Forests, Nepal
08/1995-07/1998: Agro-ecological Research Site Co-ordinator, Lumle Agricultural Research Centre, Nepal
01/1989-07/1991: Forest Ranger, Lumle Agricultural Research Centre, Nepal

ECON5001 Economic Development in Theory and Practice
ECON4410 Environmental and Resource Economics
SCIE3366 Project and Risk Management
ECON2224 Environmental Economics 2

Natural Capital Accounting
Impact evaluation
Natural resource economics
Environmental economics
Application of economic valuation techniques (hedonic pricing)
Forest policy and management
Urban and community forestry
Payment for ecosystem services
Ecotourism and protected area management
Biodiversity economics & finance
Valuation of threatened species