Poverty Reduction Through Non-Timber Forest Products

About the Author: ​A Civil engineer turned Environmental Scientist, Deepa Pullanikkatil has worked in India, Lesotho, Malawi, Swaziland and South Africa, and is currently holding the position of a Post Doctoral Research Fellow at Rhodes University. She has a B Tech degree in Civil Engineering (India), Post Graduate Diploma in Management (India), Masters in Environmental Management (South Africa), and a PhD in Environmental Science (South Africa). Having worked at Leadership for Environment and Development (LEAD) in Malawi on climate change adaptation projects, she strongly believes in interdisciplinary work and using "systems thinking" for achieving better results and is passionate about poverty alleviation. She has undertaken consultancy work for UNDP Malawi, UNEP under the Poverty Environment Initiative in Malawi, Governments of Malawi and Swaziland, GIZ and SADC. Deepa has advocated for pro-poor and integrated development at various avenues including at Woodrow Wilson Center and Capitol Hill, Washington DC. Her interest areas include climate change adaptation, ecosystems services studies and interdisciplinary approaches to poverty alleviation. Deepa is founder of a non-profit organization called "Abundance" in Malawi.
Charlie Shackleton currently occupies a fulltime research chair in Interdisciplinary Science in Land and Natural Resource Use for Sustainable Livelihoods with the department. This is a nationally funded Chair whose objective is to develop interdisciplinary understandings of and methods to reveal the role, value and importance of natural resources in rural and urban livelihoods for poverty alleviation. Charlie's research interests centre of the links between landscapes, biological resources and peoples' uses thereof. Trained as a plant ecologist, with a PhD from the University of the Witwatersrand (South Africa), he soon broadened his perspective to include social and resource valuation perspectives on how biological resources are used or abused, and how in turn resource supply enhances or constrains local livelihoods options and peoples' wellbeing. Charlie has extensive field research experience in interdisciplinary projects in rural areas of South Africa, and over the past few years has begun to apply these models and lessons to urban systems as well, which is underpinning his growing interest in urban forestry. He continues work on the ecology of individual plant species, typically those used by local people, including fuelwood, wild fruits, weaving fibres and vegetable species, and includes both indigenous and alien species. Charlie has supervised or co-supervised 8 PhD and 34 Masters students. He has over 160 peer-reviewed journal papers to his name, six books and 31 book chapters.