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Hi, I am Vijay Ramprasad.

I am an environmental social scientist. I work on governance problems and solutions at the land-biodiversity-climate-food nexus. My primary interest is the study and education of global environmental problems and how they can be fixed by policy in land systems - forests, croplands, and pastures.

LinkedIn | Email: vr4@williams.edu |Twitter: vjramprasadrao

Research

My research broadly aims to make environmental governance as applied to forest and agricultural health, more effective and equitable. The goal of these investigations is to enhance understanding of institutional, political, and social-ecological processes. My research leans towards community-serving usable science, and I engage with a variety of stakeholders to identify research questions of importance to policy. I use mixed-method approaches that draw on my training in social-ecological surveys, political ecology, ethnography, and dynamic and complex systems modeling. I use diverse data sources and tools including field data collected using social and natural science methods, government statistics, satellite observations, and archival records. I work largely in south India and the Himalayan foothills though some of my earlier research was based in Bolivia and the USA. My work primarily is in forest and agricultural landscapes, however recent interests include pastoral systems and multi-functional landscapes.

My research focuses on these related themes: 1) impacts of historic afforestation policy on rural livelihoods and forests, 2) use of information communication technologies in risk-mitigating decisions of smallholder farmers, 3) linkages between agricultural credit policy, indebtedness, and health of smallholder food systems, 4) analyzing power, politics, and justice within nature-based solutions, and 5) interface between political ecology and environmental justice scholarship. Sample investigations of these themes are:

§ South-Asian smallholder farmers and tree-based systems. Funded by the NASA LCLUC program.

§ Impacts of COVID-19 pandemic on forest resource use by rural communities in India. Funded by FORMAS, Sweden.

§ Planning plantations: past learning, toward triple wins in carbon, biodiversity, and livelihoods. Funded by NAS PEER program.

§ Impacts of Afforestation on Sustainable Livelihoods in Rural Communities in India. Funded by the NASA LCLUC program.

§ Analyzing refugee and IDP settlements as social-ecological systems. Funded by NORGLOBAL, Norway.

§ Nature-based solutions to increase community and environmental resilience. (Synthesis project under preparation).

§ Role of information communication technologies in farmer decision-making. (Under review).

§ Linkages between rural indebtedness, health, climate crisis, and sustainable livelihoods. (Under review).

I am also the founding coordinator of Kangra Integrated Sciences and Adaptation Network (KISAN), a nonprofit network of rural research professionals. KISAN provides livelihoods to rural youth in sustainable development projects through training in research methods such as interviews, spatial analysis, and ecological assessments, and skill sets such as writing, communication, and presentation.

I am a Visiting Assistant Professor of Global Environmental Studies at Williams College, Massachusets, and a honoary Senior Fellow at the Centre for Ecology, Development, and Research (CEDAR), Uttrakhand, India.

Peer-reviwed publications

Google Scholar | ResearchGate | ORCID

Choksi, P, Lalai, D, Menon, A, Joglekar, A, Roy, A, Ramprasad, V, Thapa, M, Ravikanth, G, Dhyani, S, Bunyan, M, Shastri, S, Plieninger, T, Adhikari, B, Fischer, H, Lahiri, T, Djenontin, I, Elias, F, Kocher, M, Cuadra, J-O, Fleischman, F. 2025. Do trees outside forests contribute to human wellbeing, A systematic review from South Asia. Environmental Research Letters. 20.3.
Fleischman, F, Fischer, H, Rana, P, Guleria, V, Rana, R, and Ramprasad, V. 2025. Planting and replanting: Continuity and change over four decades of forest restoration in Himachal Pradesh, India. Plants, People, Planet. 1-16.
Fleischman, F, Ramprasad, V, Choksi, P. 2025. Remote measures and remote policies: A critique of remote sensing in Indian forests and environmental policy with suggestions for moving forward. Chapter 5, Volume. 2 in Remote sensing of land cover and land use changes in South and Southeast Asia. Editors: Krisha Prasad Vadrevu, Christopher Justice, Garik Gutman.
Lofqvist, S, Kleinschroth, F, Bey, A, de Bemond, A, DeFries, R, Dong, J, Fleischman, F, Lele, S, Martin, D, Messerli, P, Meyfroidt, P, Pfeifer, M, Rakotonarivo, S, Ramankutty, N, Ramprasad, V, Rana, P, Rhemtulla, J, Ryan, C, Vieira, I, Wells, G, Garrett, R. 2023. How social considerations can improve equity and effectiveness of ecosystem restoration. BioScience. Biac099.
Fleischman, F, Coleman, E, Fischer, H, Kashwan, Pfeifer, M, Ramprasad, V, Rodriguez Solorzano, C, Veldman, J. Ecosystem restoration priorities must be informed by people on the margins. 2022. Nature. 607, E6-E7.
Rana, P, Fleischman, F, Ramprasad, V, & Lee, K. 2022. Predicting wasteful spending in tree planting programs in Indian Himalaya. 2022. World Development. 154: 105864.
Ramprasad, V. In defense of farmer's mobilization. 2021. Economic and Political Weekly. 56: 5.
Coleman, E, Schultz, W, Ramprasad, V, Fischer, H, Rana, P, Fillipi, A, Güneralp, B, Rodriguez Solorzano, C, Guleria, V, Rana, R, Fleischman, F. Limited effects of tree planting on forest canopy cover and rural livelihoods in Northern India. 2021. Nature Sustainability. 4, 997–1004.
Ramprasad, V. 2021. Institutional benefit pathways in development. World Development. 142:105453.
Fleischman, F., S. Basant, H. Fischer, D. Gupta, G. Garcia Lopez, P. Kashwan, J. S. Powers, V. Ramprasad, P. Rana, A. Rastogi, C. Rodriguez Solorzano, and M. Schmitz. 2021. How politics shapes the outcomes of forest carbon finance. Current Opinion in Environmental Sustainability. 51:7–14.
Ramprasad, V., A. Joglekar, and F. Fleischman. 2020. Plantations and pastoralists: afforestation activities make pastoralists in the Indian Himalaya vulnerable. Ecology and Society. 25(4):1.
Fleischman, F, Basant, S, Chhatre, A, Coleman, E, Fischer, H, Gupta, D, Güneralp, B, Kashwan, P Khatri, D, Muscarella, R, Powers, J, Ramprasad, V, Rana, P, Rodriguez Solorzano, C, Veldman, J. 2020. Pitfalls of tree planting show why we need people-centered natural climate solutions. BioScience. 70 (11): 947-950.
Ramprasad, V. 2019. Debt and vulnerability: indebtedness, institutions and smallholder agriculture in South India. Journal of Peasant Studies. 46: 1693-1719.
Ramprasad, V, Ribot, J and Chhatre, A. 2017. Pertinent issue, flawed methods. Economic and Political Weekly. 49: 4-5.
Lemos, M C, Kirchhoff, C, and Ramprasad, V. 2012. Narrowing the climate information usability gap. Nature Climate Change. 2: 789 – 794.
Sudha, P, Ramprasad, V, Nagendra, M D V, Kulkarni H D and Ravindranath N H. 2007. Development of an agroforestry carbon sequestration project in Khammam district, India. Mitigation and Adaptation Strategies for Global Change. 12: 1131 – 1152.
Ravindranath N H, Murthy I K, Sudha P, Ramprasad, V, Nagendra, M D V, Sahana, C A, Srivathsa, K G and Khan, H. 2007. Methodological issues in forestry mitigation projects: a case study of Kolar district. Mitigation and Adaptation Strategies for Global Change. 12: 1077 – 1098.
Sudha, P, Ramprasad, V, Bhat, P R, Murthy, I K, Rao, J R, Hegde, G T, Nagaraja, B C, Shastry, C M, Nagendra, M D V, Khan, H, Shetty, D M, Hegde, D M, Murali, K S and Ravindranath, N H. 2006. Forest protection and regeneration under Joint Forest Planning and Management in Eastern Plains and Western Ghats of Karnataka, India. Intl. Journal of Environment and Sustainable Development. 5: 70 – 84.

Media coverage

Complete links of media coverage:

Teaching

I love to teach - maybe it comes from my mum, who is a retired school teacher. And, I think my students appreciate me too, going by course reviews. I have taught in diverse settings and scales, such as training teams of field staff in statistics and social-ecological surveys, conducting chemistry, and microbiology labs with undergraduates, lecturing and leading discussions in graduate courses, and teaching rural children in their schools and nearby natural areas. My experiences include teaching at:

Williams College, Williamstown

1. Nature and Society.

2. Stumped: Tree- and land-based policy for climate and development challenges?

3. Environmental Governance

4. The Big Three: Resilience, Vulnerability and Adaptation

Ashoka University, Sonepat

1. Talking about trees.

2. Natural resource governance.

University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign

1. Environment and society.

2. Global development and environment.

3. Earth systems: Introduction to sustainability.

4. Understanding natural resource governance in developing countries.

University of Michigan, Ann Arbor

1. Introduction to microbiology.

2. International environmental policy.

Other volunteer teachings:

Forest Research Institute of India, Dehra Dun

1. Core concepts necessary to work towards the sustainability of forests in the face of climate change.

2. Scientific writing: addressing challenges of thinking in one language and writing in another.

Field sites in India

Communicating in the English language; Career planning and development; Middle-school science, math, and history.

Education and training

I was educated at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign (Ph.D., Geography and GIS), the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor (MS, Environmental Policy and Planning), and St. Joseph’s College, Bangalore (MSc, Plant Physiology, Microbiology; BSc, Environmental Science, Chemistry, Botany). I was a Postdoctoral Associate in the Environmental Governance Group at the University of Minnesota, Saint Paul, and a Research Analyst at the Centre for Ecological Sciences, Indian Institute of Science.

Interests

In South India, the contrast of black granite and lush green grass in cloudy monsoon is the stuff of dreams. In drier areas like the plains of central India, boulders are smaller but hot and challenging to climb. In Himachal and the lower Himalayas, sedimentary rocks and mountains are on a different scale altogether.

I am interested in the dualities we encounter every day. Body-mind, energy-emotion, credit-debt, birth-death, etc., are fascinating to me. To better understand these dualities, I study classical texts in Sanskrit and their transliteration. I am working on an anthology of scriptures and experiences that help me relate to the world with empathy, kindness, and generosity.

I like dogs and have trained them to run with me in my field sites, follow some basic commands, herd goats and chase foxes! This Gaddi pup, a pastoral breed of the Himalayas, is going to be a big boy.

I walked into a yoga class by mistake at the UIUC rec center, and life changed for the awesome. I became an Ashtanga Yoga practitioner since then. Check out Iyengar Yoga of Urbana Champaign. These guys are phenomenal.