Sushmita Mandal

Sushmita is an applied researcher - manager with a background in managing trans-boundary freshwater, conservation and livelihood projects. Her interests span institutions, trans-boundary resources governance, water management, regenerative agriculture, public policy, gender and rights-based approaches.

Currently she leads the low carbon agriculture programme at Aga Khan Foundation, India, which involves implementing nature-based solutions for agriculture towards achieving net positive outcomes for nature and people. It is one of a kind project that is focussed on mitigating emissions in agriculture as well as designing adaptive measures to sustain agriculture in the face of the current climate crisis.

She has crafted common pool resource management institutions in the biodiversity rich Eastern Ghats in India at Foundation for Ecological Security (FES), India; worked on forest rights of tribal communities and mapping of cultural landscapes in the Western Ghats at Ashoka Trust for Research in Ecology and Environment (ATREE), India; strengthened water diplomacy through multi-stakeholder dialogues and joint research in the Ganga Brahmaputra Meghna basin of India and Bangladesh at the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), India, and initiated grassroots diplomacy for conservation of Hilsa (Tenualosa ilisha) fish and livelihood of fisher folk dependent on the same, across riverscapes in India and Bangladesh at the International Water Association (IWA), Netherlands. She has handled interdisciplinary research on human-landscape interactions in India, Bangladesh, and Uganda, using participatory tools for research.

Sushmita is an alumna of Lady Shri Ram College, Delhi and Tata Institute of Social Sciences. Mumbai. She graduated from the first cohort of the MPhil in Conservation Leadership at the University of Cambridge in 2011.

Sushmita brings a grounded view of conservation and development issues from the majority world.  In her free-time Sushmita enjoys being outdoors: bird watching and tree-spotting. She loves to explore crafts and textiles during her travels.