A practitioner from the very beginning, Jagdeesh’s 35 year professional engagement has been on interrelated issues of poverty and environmental degradation and on ‘systems thinking’ at the interface of ecology, society and economy.
Jagdeesh has been the Chief Executive of Foundation for Ecological Security (FES) since its inception in 2001 till July 2020. As the ‘Anchor and Curator’ at FES, he has now taken on the responsibilities of influencing policy, advancing knowledge generation and exchange and constituency building for the Promise of Commons initiative that aims to improve the governance and management of 30 million acres of village commons (community forests and pastures) in India.
Jagdeesh has been conferred the ‘Skoll Award for Social Entrepreneurship’ in 2015. He is also a Rainer Arnhold (Mulago) Conservation Fellow (2017) and Senior Ashoka Fellow (2020)_. His areas of interest include Commons, decentralized governance, biodiversity informatics, systems thinking and history of science and law.
Arresting Deforestation • Clean Water • Economic Opportunity • Environmental Sustainability • Human Rights • Livelihoods • Smallholder Productivity • Water Management • Youth Job Skills
Central and Southern Asia
