Forest Dynamics and Conservation

Dr. Manoj KumarDr. Manoj Kumar is scientist and Incharge of the GIS center at Forest Research Institute (FRI), Dehradun, India. Dr. Kumar primarily works in the field of forestry, environment, climate change, and related interdisciplinary fields with wider applications of information technology, remote sensing, and GIS tools. He has research experience of more than 15 years. He has initiated work on developing forest growth simulation models to study the functional relationship of forests with the surrounding environment, which could be used for climate change impact studies. He has successfully implemented more than 20 research projects funded by national and international agencies.Dr. Shalini DhyaniDr. Shalini Dhyani is a senior scientist with the Critical Zone Research Group of Water Technology and Management Division at CSIR-NEERI, India. She is the South Asia regional chair for IUCN CEM (Commission on Ecosystems Management) and also serves as the lead author for IPBES assessment on Sustainable Use of Wild Species (2018-21). She is a skilled ecologist with more than 17 years of strong experience in forest ecology, climate change impact on forests, nature-based solutions, and eco-restoration. She received the first IUCN-CEM Chair Young Professional Award for her excellent research and publications on forests of the Himalayas. Dr. Naveen Kalra Dr. Naveen Kalra worked as a Scientist with the Indian Agricultural Research Institute (IARI), Delhi, for almost 40 years. He is now actively engaged in developing growth models for yield forecasting in the California growing region working with the University of Waterloo, Ontario, Canada. He was instrumental in initiating simulation and advance computing for the agriculture and forestry sector in India. He primarily works in the broader domains of soil physics, soil and water conservation, climate change and its variability, climate change impact assessment for agriculture and forestry sectors, simulation modelling, and machine learning applications.