Bhaskar Vira

Dr Bhaskar Vira is the Founding Director of the University of Cambridge Conservation Research Institute.  He is trained as an economist, and is Reader in Political Economy at the Department of Geography at the University of Cambridge. Bhaskar’s research focuses on the political economy of land-use and landscape level strategies, water use and management, forest management, biodiversity conservation, ecosystem services and human well-being. His work on incentives for natural resource use and management deals with trade-offs and discourses relating to the concept of ecosystem services, and how this overlaps with poverty and human well-being, as well as values for nature. Bhaskar has contributed to the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment and the UK National Ecosystem Assessment, and the IUFRO Global Forest Expert Panel on Biodiversity, Forest Management and REDD+, as well as a member of the Royal Society Working Group on Human Resilience to Climate Change and Disasters. He Chaired the IUFRO Global Forest Expert Panel on Forests and Food Security, and is a member of the Committee on World Food Security’s High Level Panel of Experts working on Sustainable Forestry for Food Security and Nutrition. Bhaskar is closely involved with promoting inter-disciplinary collaboration and dialogue through his leadership roles in the Cambridge Conservation Initiative, and the Global Food Security strategic research initiative at the University of Cambridge.