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Arun Agrawal

arun agrawal
Samuel Trask Dana Professor
Sustainability and Development
Food Systems
Conservation + Restoration
arunagra@umich.edu
(734) 647-5948
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To slow climate change

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About

Arun Agrawal, PhD, emphasizes the politics of international development, institutional change, environmental conservation, and sustainability in his research and teaching. He has written critically on indigenous knowledge, community-based conservation, common property, population resources, and environmental identities. Agrawal coordinates the University of Michigan's Collaborating Research Center for the International Forestry Resources and Institutions network. He carries out research in central and east Africa as well as South Asia. His work has appeared in Science, PNAS, Conservation Biology, Development and Change, among other journals. Preceding his work at U-M, Agrawal was educated at Duke University, the Indian Institute of Management, and Delhi University and has held teaching and research positions at Yale, Florida, McGill, Berkeley, and Harvard among other universities.

Publications

  • Ferraro, P. and A. Agrawal (2021) Synthesizing evidence in sustainability science through harmonized experiments: Community monitoring in common pool resource  Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 118 (29)
  • Liao, C., Nolte, K., Sullivan, J.A. et al. (2021) Carbon emissions from the global land rush and potential mitigation. Nature Food 2
  • Oldekop, J.,Rasmussen, L.V., Agrawal, A., et al. (2020) Forest-linked livelihoods in a globalized world Nature Plants 6(12)
  • Erbaugh, J.T., Pradhan, N., Adams, J. et al. (2020) Global forest restoration and the importance of prioritizing local communities Nature Ecology and Evolution 4
  • Newton, P., Kinzer, A.T., Miller, D.C., Oldekop, J.A., Agrawal, A. (2020) The number and spatial distribution of forest-proximate people globally One Earth 3 (3) 
  • Oldekop, Johan A., Sims, Katharine R. E., Karna, Birendra K., Whittingham, Mark J., Agrawal, Arun. 2019. Reductions in deforestation and poverty from decentralized forest management in Nepal. Nature Sustainability.
  • Agrawal, A., L. Wollenberg, and L, Persha. 2014. Governing Mitigation in Agriculture-Forest Landscapes. Global Environmental Change. 29: 270-326.
  • Agrawal, A., L. Wollenberg, and L, Persha. 2014. Governing Mitigation in Agriculture-Forest Landscapes. Global Environmental Change. 29: 270-326.
  • Agrawal, A. 2005. Environmentality: Technologies of Government and the Making of Subjects (Duke University Press; Oxford University Press, Delhi). rpt. 2006.
  • Sivaramakrishnan, K. and A. Agrawal. 2003. Regional Modernities: The Cultural Politics of Development. Stanford University Press.
  • Agrawal, A. 1999. Greener Pastures: Politics, Markets, and Community among a Migrant Pastoral People. Durham NC: Duke University Press. (Jointly published by Oxford University Press, New Delhi).

Research
  • 2015-18: (Co-PI) Large-Scale Land Transactions as Drivers of Land-Cover Change in SubSaharan Africa. NASA. 891K (With Dan Brown, PI).
  • 2014-15: (PI) Integrating forest commons and global datasets. Center for International Forestry Research (CIFOR) 153K.
  • 2014-18: (PI) Forest Dependence and effectiveness of forest interventions to support livelihoods. Department for International Development. 3.1M.
  • 2014-16 (PI) International Institute for Education (State Department). Climate change mitigation, avoided deforestation and commodity agriculture. Global Innovation Initiative. 250K (with P. Newton and L. Wollenberg)
  • 2013: (PI): Enhancing causal inference for forest commons outcomes, Rights and Resources Initiative (60K)
Education

PhD, Duke University (political science)

MA, Duke University (political science)

MBA, Indian Institute of Management (development administration and public policy)

BA, Delhi University (history)

Affiliations
  • Coordinator: International Forestry Resources and Institutions Program (2006- Present)
  • Member, NSF-IGERT (National Science Foundation-Integrative Graduate Education and Research Traineeship) evaluation panel (2010)
  • Member, Fellowship selection panel, ACLS (2009-2011)
In the News
Dr. Arun Agrawal Announced as Co-Chair on Intergovernmental Transformative Change Assessment
January 27, 2022

Dr. Arun Agrawal Announced as Co-Chair on Intergovernmental Transformative Change Assessment

“The world changes every day. But sustainability of people and ecosystems requires a transformation in where we are headed. Figuring out what this transformation will...

 Community Monitoring in Common Pool Resources
July 28, 2021

Community Monitoring in Common Pool Resources

In 1990, Elinor Ostrom published Governing the Commons, a demonstration that communities could successfully manage common pool resources without resorting to individual...

Biden climate pledge: U-M experts available to comment
April 22, 2021

Biden climate pledge: U-M experts available to comment

EXPERTS ADVISORY President Joe Biden pledged to cut U.S. greenhouse-gas emissions in half by 2030 during a virtual climate summit today with 40 world leaders. University...

Guardians of the Forest
February 1, 2021

Gala Learning Case: Guardians of the Forests

How should an indigenous community in eastern Bolivia defend their land and forests? That question is the focus of a case study by SEAS Professors Ivette Perfecto and...

U-M SEAS Announces New Sustainability and Development Degree Specialization
October 13, 2020

SEAS Announces New Sustainability and Development Degree Specialization

The U-M School for Environment and Sustainability (SEAS) has received approval from the Rackham Executive Board to establish a new degree specialization focused on...

Global forest restoration and the importance of empowering local communities
August 24, 2020

Global forest restoration and the importance of empowering local communities

ANN ARBOR— Forest restoration is a crucial element in strategies to mitigate climate change and conserve global biodiversity in the coming decades, and much of the focus...

April 1, 2020

U-M to launch online master’s-level programs in environment, public health, social work

ANN ARBOR—The University of Michigan continues to expand its portfolio of online programs with the support of the Center for Academic Innovation, launching three new...

In the Media
05/13/2022
Arun Agrawal
A lifetime of climate change (Knowable Magazine)
03/16/2022
Arun Agrawal
Are there limits to economic growth? It’s time to call time on a 50-year argument (Nature)
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