Research Interests
I am interested in issues of power, justice and equity pertaining to forest conservation and governance. I specifically focus on community-based forest conservation, democratization of forest governance, and gender relations in environmental governance. My research examines how human beings come to care for and identify with their natural environment and explores how environmental subjectivity is transformed due to everyday practices and interaction with nature. Other areas of research interests include social and environmental movements; REDD regimes and equity; forest tenure reforms and rights of indigenous peoples. Democratizing Forest Governance in India: Rights, Justice, and Conservation:
Through this SSHRC funded research project, I am examining the implementation of India’s Forest Rights Act and how power and politics shapes India’s forest tenure reform process. I am exploring how marginalized forest dwellers negotiate existing power relations to gain voice and visibility and use cross-scale organizing and alliance building to improve their collective bargaining position. In addition my focuses on the interface of the formal forest tenure reform process with the complex and layered customary rights, claims, patterns of use, and governance arrangements at the local level.
I welcome inquiries and applications from students interested in these areas.
Courses
FOR302: Societal Values and Forest Management
FOR3012: Course Module on Application of Social Science Methodologies in Forestry (3 weeks)
FOR3010: Sustainable Forest Management & Forest Certification
Publications (Selected)
Peer-Reviewed
Singh, N. M. (2007). Transgressing Political Spaces and Claiming Citizenship: The Case of Women Kendu Leaf-Pluckers and the Community Forestry Federation, Ranpur, Orissa. In S. Krishna (Ed.), Women's Livelihood Rights: Recasting Citizenship for Development (pp. 62-81). New Delhi, Thousand Oaks, London: Sage Publications.
Singh, N. M. (2004). Women and Community Forests in Orissa: Rights and Management. In S. Krishna (Ed.), Livelihood & Gender: Equity in Community Resource Management (pp. 306-324). New Delhi, Thousand Oaks, London: Sage Publications.
Sarin, M., N. M. Singh, N. Sundar, & R. K. Bhogal (2003). Devolution as a Threat to Democratic Decision-making in Forestry? Findings from three states in India. In D. Edmunds & E. Wollenberg (eds.) Local Forest Management: The Impacts of Devolution Policies, pp: 55-126. London, Sterling, VA: Earthscan.
Singh, N. M. (2001). Women and Community Forests in Orissa: Rights and Management. Indian Journal of Gender Studies, 8(2), 257-270.
Thomas Sikor, Johannes Stahl, Thomas Enters, Jesse C. Ribot, Neera Singh, William D. Sunderlin, Lini Wollenberg. (2010). REDD-plus, forest people's rights and nested climate governance, Global Environmental Change, Volume 20, Issue 3, Governance, Complexity and Resilience, August 2010, Pages 423-425 (Editorial).
Monographs
Singh, N. M., & Nayak, P. K. (2003). Adaptive Community Forest Management: A case of Dhani Panch Mouza Jungle Surakhya Samiti, Orissa. New Delhi: Winrock International India.
Kant, S., Singh, N. M., & Singh, K. K. (1991). Community based Forest Management Systems: Case studies from Orissa. New Delhi, Bhopal: SIDA, ISO/Swedforest, Indian Institute of Forest Management.
Others
Singh, N. M. (2002). Federations of community forest management groups in Orissa: Crafting new institutions to assert local rights. Forest, Trees and People Newsletter, 46, 35-45.
Conroy, C., Mishra, A., Rai, A., Singh, N. M., & Chan, M. K. (2001). Conflicts Affecting Participatory Forest Management: Their Nature and Implications. In B. Vira & R. Jeffrey (Eds.), Analytical Issues in Participatory Natural Resources Management, pp: 165-184. New York: Palgrave Macmillan.
