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Intervention Manager- Human Wildlife Conflict HWC Resilient mountain economies and landscapes (SG2) Ecosystem and landscape restoration (SG2-AAD)
Janita Gurung manages ICIMOD’s Human-Wildlife Coexistence intervention. She took up this position in 2023 after coordinating the Kailash Sacred Landscape programme from 2018 to 2022.
Janita has many years of experience working on community-based conservation projects in some of the remotest regions of the Hindu Kush Himalaya with notable policy and research outcomes.
She is a Coordinating Lead Author for the Transformative Change Assessment (due at the end of 2024) of the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES).
Janita Gurung
How do you protect the pulse of the planet?
Nature knows no political boundaries, and hence I protect the pulse through the transboundary landscape approach. Working with researchers, community members, and locally elected and government officials, I function as the catalyst to bridge the science-practice divide so that our work can contribute to policy and decision-making that will produce lasting impacts on the communities.
What is your favorite part of the work you do at ICIMOD?
ICIMOD has a multi-cultural, multi-disciplinary, and multi-talented working environment, and the diversity of perspectives is what I enjoy the most about working here.
What are you passionate about?
To bring positive change in the lives of those I work with is my biggest motivation at work.
My qualifications
I am an ecologist by education with more than twenty years of experience in the field of conservation and development. Through both work and leisure, I have been fortunate to visit many of the mountain regions in the HKH and to personally experience the pressing issues there – all of which have contributed to my knowledge of the mountains.