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Arun Agrawal

Arun Agrawal
Professor Emeritus of Environment and Sustainability
Sustainability and Development
Food Systems
Conservation + Restoration
[email protected]
(734) 647-5948
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To slow climate change

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About

Arun Agrawal, a professor emeritus of environment and sustainability, retired from SEAS in December 2024. His research 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. He was elected to the National Academy of Sciences in 2018. 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
Macy Robinson (MS ’24)
April 29, 2024

Meet the future of Sustainability and Development: Macy Robinson (MS ’24)

Why SEAS? After completing her Bachelor of Science in Agroecology and Sustainable Food Systems at North Carolina State University, Macy Robinson (MS ’24) knew she wanted...

Commoning for resilience, commoning through change
April 8, 2024

Commoning for resilience, commoning through change

This is the second in a two-part blog series focused on the commons. To get acquainted with the concept of the commons, click here for the first installment, The commons...

The Commons: More than just resources
February 5, 2024

The Commons: More than just resources

What do squatters’ movements have in common with meadows? What makes sharing a front yard radical? And how do these examples defy the dominant methods of resource...

Professors of Practice White and Shriberg bring practical experience into the classroom
November 30, 2023

Professors of Practice Shriberg and White bring practical experience into the classroom

As professors of practice and engagement at the University of Michigan School for Environment and Sustainability (SEAS), Mike Shriberg (MS ’00, PhD ’02) and Andy White...

SEAS research teams chosen for new Boost program
September 7, 2023

SEAS research teams chosen for new Boost program

The Bold Challenges Initiative has selected eight interdisciplinary teams, including three whose members are from the School for Environment and Sustainability (SEAS)...

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...

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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