Hemant Ojha, Senior Research Fellow

Dr Ojha has two decades of experience in research, and development actions and post-graduate teaching. He is the Distinguished Research Fellow (Honorary) at SIAS and the former Chair of SIAS Board. He is the founder of ForestAction Nepal and formerly its Board Chair. He did doctoral research in Development Studies (with a focus on Natural Resource Governance) from School of Development Studies, University of East Anglia, Norwich, UK. His research spans a wide range of issues related to society and environment. He has ongoing research collaboration with a number of Universities in Nepal and outside, including University of Toronto (Geography), University of Edinburgh (Geography), University of Michigan (Environment), and Tribhuvan University (Sociology/Anthropology and Forestry). He has also served as researcher/specialist/consultant for several Nepal-based and international agencies.

His current research focuses on deliberative governance, public policy, local democracy, and adaptive collaborative approaches to natural resource governance. He has published peer-reviewed articles in various international journals, several book chapters, and has written/edited/co-edited three books. He has co-edited a book“Knowledge Systems and Natural Resources: Management, Institutions and Policy in Nepal” which is published (2008) by Cambridge University Press India in collaboration with International Development Research Center (IDRC) of Canada. He has also written a book entitled “Reframing Governance: Understanding Deliberative Politics in Nepal’s Terai Forestry published by Adroit Publishers, New Delhi. He has another co-edited book entitled ‘Communities, Forests and Governance: Policy and Institutional Innovations from Nepal”. He has edited a book on adaptive collaborative management of natural resources in collaboration with Research Into User Programme of DFID.

Current Research Projects

• Climate Adaptive Agricultural Innovation Threads in Southasia. This is a joint research project between SIAS and Climate Change Agriculture, and Food Security Initiative of CGIAR, covering Nepal, India and Bangladesh.
• Climate change and Local Institutions in Nepal, in collaboration with Danish Institute of International Studies (DIIS).
• Landscape of Democracy: the cultural politics of governance in Nepal, in association with The University of Edinburgh and University of Toronto.
• Role of critical action research in transforming forest governance, with ForestAction Nepal and SIAS.
• Inclusive urbanization in the context of environmental change, with University of Sydney and Maulana Azad National Institute of Technology, Bhopal India.
• Ecosystem services and poverty alleviation, in collaboration with The University of Edinburgh.

Post-graduate Research Supervision

• Co-supervisor of PhD research of Ms Prativa Sapkota along with Prof Rod Keenan, Melbourne School of Land and Environment (MSLE),University of Melbourne, Australia (2012-16)
• Co-supervisor of PhD research of Mani R Banjade on Deliberative governance of forestry in Nepal, with Prof John Dryzek and Peter Kanowski, Fenner School of Environment and Society, Australian National University, Australia (2010-14)
• Co-supervisor of PhD Research of Sudeep Jana Thing on Protected Area and Indigenous People, with Prof Roy Jones, Curtin University, Australia (2011-14)
• Co-supervised MSc thesis of Research of Bidhya Gautam on Development and Poverty Reduction Policy, at Department of Comprehensive Policy Making, Ehime University, Japan (2011-14)
• Co-supervised MSc Thesis of Ramu Subedi on REDD as payment of environmental services in Nepal, Edinburgh University (2010)
• Supervised MA thesis of Kamal Devkota on Community Participation and Local Governance in Nepal, Purbanchal University, Nepal (2010)
• Supervised MA thesis of Madhusudan Gautam on Local Governance in Nepal, Purbanchal University, Nepal (2009)
• Supervised MSC forestry thesis of Diwakar Maskey on Payment of Environment Services in Phewa watershed, Nepal, at Institute of Forestry, Tribhuvan University (2009)

Selected Publications

Peer Reviewed Journal Articles

• Ojha, H., 2013.Counteracting hegemonic powers in the policy process: critical action research on Nepal’s forest governance. Critical Policy Studies.
  
• Paudel, N.S., Khatri, D.B., Ojha, H., Karki, R. and Gurung, N., 2013. Integrating Climate Change Adaptation with Local Development: Exploring Institutional Options. Journal of Forest and Livelihood, 11(1):1-13
• Ojha, H (2012). Civic Engagement through Critical Action Research: Reflections on Ten Years of ForestAction Nepal experience,New Angle: Nepal Journal of Social Science and Public Policy.
• Nightingale, A and H. Ojha. Theory of Power and Authority: Symbolic Violence and Subjectivity in Nepal’s Terai Forests, Development and Change (Under Review)
• Ojha, H.R., Paudel, N.S., Khatri, D.B. and B.K., D. 2012. Can Policy Learning be Catalyzed? Ban Chautari Experiment in Nepal’s Forestry Sector. Journal of Forest and Livelihood. 10(1)
• Ojha, H (2009). Civic Engagement and Deliberative Forest Governance: The Case of Community Forestry Users’ Federation of Nepal,Studies in Nepalese History and Society (SINHAS), Issue: December
• Sharma, N, H Ojha and S Ghimire (2007). Human rights: A guiding principle or a challenge for transforming conservation? Policy Matters, 2007, No 15.
• Ojha, H, N Ttimsina and Dil R Khanal (2007). How are Forest Policy Decisions Made in Nepal? Journal of Forest and Livelihood, 6 (1), pp 1-16.
• Ojha, H. Techno-bureaucratic Doxa and Challenges for Deliberative Governance – The Case of Community Forestry Policy and Practice in Nepal. Policy and Society, 25 (2): 131-175, 2006
• Cameron, J and H Ojha (2006) A deliberative ethic for development: A Nepalese journey from Bourdieu through Kant to Dewey and Habermas. International Journal of Social Economics, 2006: 34 (1)
• N Sharma, M Banjade, H Ojha, C McDougall, R Prabhu (2006). Contextualizing Common Property Systems: Action Research Insights on Forging Effective Links between Forest Commons and ‘Meso’ Level Governance (2006) Journal of Forest and Livelihood
• Ojha, H, B Bhattarai and J Cameron (2005). Understanding Development through the Language of Habermas and Bourdieu? Insights from Nepal’s Leasehold Forestry Programme. International Development Planning Review, 17 (4), 2005 (with J Cameron and B Bhattarai)
• Facilitating Deliberative Governance: Innovations from Nepal’s Community Forestry Program Forestry Chronicle (with M Banjade). The Forestry Chronicle 81(3): 403-408, 2005
• Ojha, H, Bhattarai, B., and Y. Humagain (2005).Is Leasehold Forestry Really a Pro-Poor Innovation in Nepal? Evidences from kavre District. Journal of Forest and Livelihood 4(2): 17-30.
• Ojha, H and B Pokharel (2005). Democratic Innovations in Community Forestry – What Can Politicians Learn? Participation (A Journal of Nepal Participatory Action Network), Vol VII, December, 2005
• Ojha, H and B Bhattarai (2003). Learning to Manage a Complex Resource – A Case of NTFP Assessment in Nepal. International Forestry Review Vol 2, 118-127, 2003 (with B Bhattarai)
• Ojha, H, B Pokharel, K Paudel and C McDougall (2002). Learning to Govern: A Review of Community Forestry Monitoring System in Nepal. Journal of Forest and Livelihood (). Journal of Forest and Livelihood 2 (2), 2002
• Ojha, H, B Subedi and S Dangal (2002). Management of Non-Timber Forest Products: Recent Innovations in Resource Assessment and Sustainable Harvesting. Nepal Journal of Forestry 2002
• Ojha, H and B Bhattarai (2001). Understanding Community Perspectives of Silvicultural Practices in the Middle Hills of Nepal. FTPP Newsletter (No 44), FAO.

Books

• Ojha, H, Andy Hall and Rasheed Sulaiman (eds) (2012). Adaptive Collaborative Approaches in Natural Resource Management: Participation, Learning and Innovation, Routlage, London and New York. http://www.routledge.com/books/details/9780415699105/ (forthcoming)
• McDougall, C, Mani Ram Banjade, H Ojha Bishnu Hari Pandit, Sushila Rana, Manik Maharjan (2009). Forests of Learning: experiences from research on an adaptive collaborative approach to community forestry in Nepal). CIFOR, ForestAction Nepal and New Era.
• Ojha, H (2008). Reframing Governance: Understanding Deliberative Politics in Nepal’s Terai Forestry, Adroit Publishers, New Delhi, India.
• Ojha, H, Netra Timsina, Ram Chhetri and Krishna Paudel (2008). Knowledge Systems and Natural Resources: Management, Policy and Institutions in Nepal, Cambridge University Press and IDRC Canada.
• Ojha, H, Netra Timsina, Chetan Kumar, Brian Belcher and Maniram Banjade (eds) (2008). Communities, Forests and Governance: Policy and Institutional Innovations from Nepal edited) (Adroit Publishers, India)
• Subedi, B, H Ojha, Binayee, Ken Nicholson (2003). An Assessment of Community Based Forest Enterprises in Nepal: Case Studies, Lessons and Implications. ANSAB and SNV Nepal
• Subedi, B, S Binayee, H Ojha and A Koonz(2002). Enterprise Development Manual for Natural Products. ANSAB.

Book Chapters

• Ojha, H. Civic Engagement, Social Capital and Democratic Possibility: The Emergence and Struggle of Community Forest User Group Federation in Nepal (In Vibrant Societies, Deniere and Lyong (Eds)., Routlage, 2012
• Ojha, H, M Banjade, N Sharma, J Cameron and C McDougall. The Deliberative Scientist: An Approach to Forest Management in Nepal. In: Beyond the Biophysical: Laura German et al (ed), Springer Publications, 2010
• Ojha, H, Lauren Persha and Ashwinin Chhatre. (2009) Seeing Forests through the Trees: community forestry in Nepal. In: D Spielman and Rajul Pandya-Lorch (ed): MillionsFed: Proven Successes in Agricultural Development, International Food Policy Research Institute.
• Ojha, H, Dil Khanal, Naya Sharma, Hari Sharma, and Bharti Pathak. Federation of Community Forest User Groups in Nepal: An Innovation in Democratic Forest Governance, paper 26, proceedings of an international conference on Poverty Reduction and Forest: Tenure, Market and Policy Reforms. RECOFTC and RRI, 2009
• Ojha, H, K Paudel and J Cameron (2008). Autonomy or Deliberative Governance: Insights from Habermas, Bourdieu and Dewey (with J Cameron and K Paudel). In: P Banerjee and S K Das (eds), Autonomy Beyond Kant and Hermeneutics, Anthem Critical Studies, London, New York and Delhi.
• Ojha, H and N Timsina. From Grassroots to Policy Deliberation – The Case of Federation of Forest User Groups in Nepal. In: H Ojha, N Timsina, R Chhetri and K Paudel (eds), Knowledge Systems and Natural Resources: Management, Policy and Institutions in Nepal, Cambridge University Press India and IDRC Canada, 2008
• Paudel, K and H Ojha. Contested Knowledge and Reconciliation in Nepal’s Community Forestry – A Case of Forest Inventory Policy . In: H Ojha, N Timsina, R Chhetri and K Paudel (eds), Knowledge Systems and Natural Resources: Management, Policy and Institutions in Nepal, Cambridge University Press and IDRC Canada, 2008
• Timsina, N and H Ojha. Agricultural Technology Development in Nepal: Critical Assessment From Knowledge System Perspective. In: H Ojha, N Timsina, R Chhetri and K Paudel, Knowledge Systems and Natural Resources: Management, Policy and Institutions in Nepal, Cambridge University Press and IDRC Canada, 2008
• Hull, J, H Ojha and K Paduel. Reconciling Knowledge in Forest Assessment – The Development of Forest Inventory Guidelines for Community Forestry in Nepal. In: Anna Lawrence, Taking Stock of Nature: Participatory Biodiversity Assessment for Policy Planning and Practice, Oxford (with J Hull and K Paudel), 2008.
• Ojha, H, N Timsina, R Chhetri and K Paudel.   Deliberative Knowledge Interface: Lessons and Policy Implications. In: H Ojha, N Timsina, R Chhetri and K Paudel, Knowledge Systems and Natural Resources: Management, Policy and Institutions in Nepal, Cambridge University Press and IDRC Canada, 2008
• Ojha, H, N Timsina, R Chhetri and K Paudel. Knowledge Systems and Deliberative Interface: An Overview. In: H Ojha, N Timsina, R Chhetri and K Paudel,Knowledge Systems and Natural Resources: Management, Policy and Institutions in Nepal, Cambridge University Press and IDRC Canada, 2008
• McDougall, H Ojha, R.K.Pandey, M.R.Banjade and B.H. Pandit. Enhancing Adaptiveness and Collaboration in Community Forestry in Nepal: Reflections from Participatory Action Research (with C.McDougall,. In: R J Fisher: ACM in Asia, CIFOR and RFF (forthcoming), 2007
• Paudel, K and H Ojha. Imposing indicators or Co-creating Meanings: Developing Self-monitoring System in Nepal’s Community Forestry (with K Paudel). In: I Guijt (ed) – Adaptive Collaborative Management of Forests, CIFOR and RFF, 2005.

Research Report