Sandeep Minhas holds an M.Sc. in Zoology and has over 25 years of experience working with communities, civil society organisations and development institutions on natural resource governance, decentralisation, community rights and sustainable development in the Western Himalayas. His work has focused particularly on strengthening community institutions and governance systems for the sustainable management of forests, land and water resources, and on developing locally grounded models of livelihoods and conservation. Sandeep has worked extensively with both tribal and non-tribal communities of Himachal Pradesh in the Himalayan region and has collaborated with international and bilateral development agencies, including GIZ, UNDP and JICA, on decentralisation, local governance and community-based natural resource management. His work has involved strengthening Panchayati Raj institutions, community organisations and local governance systems, with a particular emphasis on enabling communities to play a meaningful role in decisions concerning their natural resources and development. For more than two decades, Sandeep has been closely engaged with the implementation of the Forest Rights Act (FRA), 2006, at both state and national levels. His work has contributed to advancing recognition of Individual Forest Rights (IFR), Community Forest Rights (CFR) and Community Forest Resource (CFR) rights, and, increasingly, to addressing the critical post-recognition question of how communities can effectively govern, conserve and derive sustainable livelihoods from their forest resources. He has worked with Gram Sabhas, CFR Management Committees, Panchayats, community organisations and government institutions to strengthen community-led forest governance. Sandeep has been particularly involved in advancing the idea that recognition of forest rights must lead to democratic and ecologically sustainable community forest governance, rather than merely the settlement of legal claims. His work seeks to connect the Forest Rights Act with biodiversity conservation, climate resilience, sustainable livelihoods and local economic development. He has also worked on strengthening community institutions for the management of medicinal plants, Minor Forest Produce, grazing resources, forests and other common natural resources. As Managing Trustee of People for Himalayan Development (PHD), Sandeep has led initiatives on Forest Rights Act implementation, Community Forest Resource governance, climate resilience, sustainable livelihoods and community-led development across Himachal Pradesh and other parts of the Himalayan region. His work has included supporting communities in securing and managing CFR rights and developing village-level approaches to CFR management that place the Gram Sabha and rights-holders at the centre of decision-making. Sandeep has also developed and promoted an innovative model of People-Owned, People-Governed Tourism, which seeks to establish tourism as a community-owned economic activity rather than an externally controlled enterprise. The model brings together the institutional strengths of the Panchayati Raj framework, PESA and the Forest Rights Act, including the role of CFR Management Committees, to create locally governed systems for tourism planning, ownership, resource management and benefit sharing. The approach links conservation, local livelihoods, cultural identity and democratic governance. At the national level, Sandeep currently serves as the National Coordinator of NACM–CFR-MFP, an alliance of state-level federations working to advance the post-recognition agenda of forest rights. The alliance focuses on strengthening community institutions and federations for biodiversity conservation, sustainable forest management, Minor Forest Produce-based livelihoods, value addition, local enterprise and equitable benefit sharing. Sandeep has also been actively engaged in policy advocacy and dialogue on the Forest Rights Act, community forest governance, biodiversity conservation and sustainable tourism. He has contributed articles and public-policy reflections on FRA implementation and community-based tourism, including articles published in Down To Earth with Chitra Ranjan. His work combines long-term grassroots engagement with policy advocacy and institutional development, with a particular focus on creating a stronger link between community rights, democratic governance, ecological conservation and livelihood security in the Himalayan region. His current work is centred on moving the forest-rights discourse beyond recognition towards effective community governance of forests and natural resources, and on demonstrating how empowered Gram Sabhas and community institutions can become the foundation for biodiversity conservation, climate resilience and sustainable rural economies in the Himalayas.

Experience in livelihoods

Sharachchandra (Sharad) Lele did his Ph.D. in Energy and Resources from UC Berkeley on sustainable forest use in the Western Ghats. Sharad is an interdisciplinary scientist, bridging the ecology, hydrology, economics, and political science to understand environmental governance in general and forest governance in particular. For the past 35 years, he has been working on sustainable forest management, forest rights and governance, forest hydrology, forest cover mapping, and forest-based livelihoods in different parts of the country, especially Western Ghats and Central India. His publications include the well-known book “Democratizing Forest Governance” (OUP, 2014). He is currently Distinguished Fellow in Environmental Policy & Governance at ATREE and Honorary Professor at Shiv Nadar University Delhi. He was a member of the MoEF-MoTA Committee on FRA in 2010 and is presently a member of the MP State Task Force on FRA & PESA

Sumer Singh Bhati is a traditional camel herder, farmer, and community conservationist from Sanwata village in Jaisalmer, Rajasthan. He was honored with the international Rangeland Restoration Award 2026 for his grassroots efforts to protect and restore the desert ecosystem.

Brief Bio of Shailendra Tiwari Shailendra Tiwari has over thirty years of work experience in Agriculture,Community Forestry and Natural Resource Development. He holds an M.Sc. In Animal Sciences from Gujarat Agricultural University, Anand and a B. Sc. in Agriculture from Sukhadia University, Udaipur  . He joined Seva Mandir in 1993 as the Coordinator for Forestry and Agriculture. Later in 2004, he became the head of the Natural Resource Management programme. Shailendra was appointed as the General Secretary of Seva Mandir in 2017 & he retired in 2022 from Seva Mandir. Currently he is an independent Social & Environment Worker. He is also associated with Mohan Sinha Mehta Memorial Trust (MSMMT) which works on volunteerism & citizenship , Udaipur and Udaipur Urja Initiative (UUI) working on Carbon Forestry. He is also working with a few networks active in the field of agriculture, forests and relevant social & environmental issues.