
Shalini Dhyani
Shalini Dhyani
Dr. Shalini Dhyani is Senior Scientist with Critical Zone Group of Water Technology and Management Division in CSIR-NEERI, India. She is South Asia Regional Chair for IUCN CEM (Commission on Ecosystems Management) (2017-2020). She is IPBES Lead Author Global thematic assessment on Sustainable Use of Wild Species (2018-2021) and was lead author for IPBES Asia Pacific regional assessment of biodiversity and ecosystem services in Asia Pacific (2015-2018). Dr. Shalini is trained ecologist with work experience in temperate forest ecosystems in Western, and Eastern Himalayas; forests of Central India, Mangroves of Odisha, arid areas of Rajasthan and Gujarat and Western Ghats in Kerala and Karnataka. She is gold medalist from Forest Research Institute, Dehradun and did her doctoral work on Natural and Manmade pressures on Forests of Kedarnath Wildlife Sanctuary. Presently, she is involved in a multidisciplinary long term Critical Zone research for understanding the functioning and impact of ground water dependent ecosystems and APN-IGES, Japan project on developing plausive alternate scenarios for Bhitarkanika, India. Dr. Shalini has worked on Biodiversity Inclusive impact assessment of important developmental projects across India and has also contributed to many NGT and Judiciary projects. Her work in Upper Ganga catchment focuses on understanding the role of riparian buffers for ensuring river health. She is developing Nature based Solutions (NbS) approach for planning SMART and resilient cities. She has worked in Indo-EU projects on decontamination of soil and water using techno ecological solutions. She has contributed to bio-monitoring projects as well as reclamation of mining sites using zero soil interventions. She was jury member for innovation prize programme on climate change adaptation (CCA) at scale (A@S) 2019 by IMC, UK for Nepal, Vatavaran Film Festival, 2019 and Jury member for IUCN CEM Chair young professional award, IUCN World Conservation Congress, 2016 at Hawaii. Dr. Shalini was awarded “IUCN-CEM Chair Young Professional Award” at World Parks Congress 2014 in Sydney, Australia for her excellent research and publications on forests of Himalayan region. She has been selected among 100 women for their exceptional work in Asia by Asian Rural Women's Coalition (ARWC), Malaysia for her work on Fodder Bank to reduce pressure from forests of Himalayas in 2010. Her work on Fodder Bank has also been selected as innovative approach to tackle forest degradation by various forums and was among 10 best case studies of SAARC countries for sustainable forest management in mountains in 2014. She developed interactive Urban Biodiversity Portal on the lines of Aichi Biodiversity Targets, in 2015 that was selected Urban Champion by Wild Cities International programme of Coalition Wild, USA in 2015. She is member of UNEP-Partnerships for Ecosystems and Disaster Risk Reduction (PEDRR), Knowledge and Learning Mechanism on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (EKLIPSE) and UNDP BES-Net (Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services Network). Dr. Shalini is recipient of various national as well as international financial grants viz. UNEP, UNESCO, GIZ, FAO, IUCN, UNU, European Union-LEANES, Rufford SGP, DST, APN etc. She is editor of IUCN CEM S. Asia Newsletter, and reviewer to many peer reviewed prestigious high impact journals. She has her more than 60 national, international publications with many popular articles especially on lesser known underutilized wild edibles to her credit. Shalini is passionate about science outreach and is a frequent blogger, popular article writer and has also delivered many lectures and talks to children, youth, researchers and practitioners to popularize importance of ecosystems, nature based solutions and biodiversity across India.
Joined 2021
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