Seminars and Events

is a Fellow at the Resource Management in Asia-Pacific Program in the College of Asia and the Pacific in The Australian National University. Kuntala has studied the lower Damodar valley and the social effects of the Damodar Valley Corporation, a large dam project initiated in 1948, and has been associated with the National Alliance of People’s Movements to consider water resource management.

is a research fellow at SOPPECOM and has about 18 years of experience of working on gender and water related issues. She is an active member of the women’s movement in Maharashtra, India.

David Cassells is a Senior Policy Advisor on Forests and Climate Change with The Nature Conservancy (TNC) and was formerly the Director of TNC’s Asia Pacific Region Forest Program and Chief of Party for the Responsible Asia Forestry and Trade (RAFT) Program. A forester by training, David has held leadership and advisory positions with ITTO, The World Bank, the Iwokrama International Centre for Rain Forest Conservation and Development, IUCN and a number of other international bodies.

Jon Altman is Professor and the Director of the Centre for Aboriginal Economic Policy Research. He has a disciplinary background in economics and anthropology. Professor Altman's research interests are wide and include sustainable economic development and associated policy issues for Indigenous Australia. He is currently an ARC Australian Professorial Fellow looking at possible development futures for remote Indigenous Australians in hybrid economies.

Penny Davis is a Policy Manager with the Australian Agency for International Development (AusAID). She works on the International Forest Carbon Initiative (IFCI) which aims to demonstrate that REDD can be part of a post-2012 global climate change agreement. Her main focus is supporting the implementation of IFCI activities in Indonesia including the Kalimantan Forests and Climate Partnership, the first Australia-Indonesia REDD demonstration activity.

Luca Tacconi (panel moderator) is Associate Professor in the Crawford School of Economics and Government, Director of the Environmental Management Program and Co-convenor of the Master of Climate Change. His current research activities focus on environmental governance, deforestation and climate change.

is Convenor of Resource Manangement in Asia-Pacific Program.

is a PhD candidate in the Environmental Management and Development Program, Crawford School, ANU, examining the implication of decentralised forest management and fiscal decentralisation on forest protection at the subnational level.

Luca is Associate Professor in the Crawford School of Economics and Government, Director of the Environmental Management Program and Co-convenor of the Master of Climate Change. His current research activities focus on environmental governance, deforestation and climate change.

Sango is Research and Teaching Fellow in the Resource Management in Asia Pacific Program and coordinates the Master of Applied Anthropology and Participatory Development. Her current research activities focus on politics, livelihoods and social learning in natural resource governance.

Arnab, Sukanta and Dibyendu are three key actors at the grassroots level in an extremely poor and drought-prone part of India, working with PRADAN (Professional Assistance for Development Action). They are visiting RMAP on the Australian Government-funded Endeavour Executive Awards. Kuntala Lahiri-Dutt is Fellow in RMAP and Kate Harriden is currently researching intra-household water use by genders in the ACT, funded by the Gender and Water Alliance.

is Senior Advisor and Editor of Development, the journal of the Society for International Development and part time Professor of the European University Institute. She has contributed for over 20 years to debates on gender, development and human rights through her research, editing, advocacy and programme work in international development. She has recently completed a visiting fellowship at Clare Hall University of Cambridge where she wrote a book entitled 'Body Politics in Development' published by ZED Books in 2009. As well as her ongoing work for the journal Development she is currently editing a series on environment and gender for ZED Books.

has a background in contentious politics, natural resource management and the anthropology of business. His recent work has focused on transitioning to more sustainable energy systems, in particular, how to improve the governance of hydropower and other natural resources in the Mekong Region.

is the national president of PNG Women-in-Agriculture and member of the Board for the National Agricultural Research Institute. She, and her family, are farmers in the Markham Valley in Morobe Province.

film maker, Azbri Productions, Venice, California.

joined the Institute of Developing Economies in Japan after completing an MA at Stanford University’s Food Research Institute in 1992. Since then she has been doing research on the transformation of Myanmar’s rural economic and social transition. From 1998–2000 she spent two years in Myanmar, conducting field surveys in various parts of the country. The research during this period was the basis of her doctoral thesis submitted to Kyoto University in 2006.

is President of the International Society for the Systems Sciences. After two years at the University of Ife, Nigeria, he joined the faculty at the University of Wisconsin in 1970. He has been applying notions of complex systems and hierarchy theory to ecology for thirty five years. His first book, 'Hierarchy: perspectives for ecological complexity' (1982) established hierarchy theory and scaling in ecology. His four other hierarchy theoretic books either specialize in ecosystem analysis, or broaden across all types of ecology and beyond to the life and social sciences in general. He has published over 60 scholarly works in journals on plant community data analysis, agricultural systems, issues of scale, sustainability and narrative in complexity theory. His latest work is a book with J. Tainter and T. Hoekstra, 'Supply side sustainability' (2003) enters the emerging field of economic ecology, and identifies that we must manage the whole ecosystem that makes resources renewable, not natural resources themselves. His present research push is a general theory of switches in resource quality for ecology and society.

recently completed his PhD in Anthropology at RMAP. His research focuses on the social and political aspects of marine resource use and regulation in the Philippines.

has worked for 40 years on the vegetation and flora of New Guinea, 22 years of which have been in residence in PNG as leader of the Botany/Ecology groups for the Ecological Needs Assessment in Papua New Guinea. His taxonomic expertise is wide and encompasses a special interest in tree ferns, which are diverse in New Guinea. He is currently Director of the New Guinea Biodiversity, Conservation and Land Use Management program, Botanical Research Institute of Texas, Forth Worth, USA.

has a bachelor's degree in Electrical Engineering from Eindhoven, Netherlands (2000-2004) and masters in Technological and Socio-Economic Planning from Roskilde, Denmark (2005-2007). Under mentorship in Netherlands, he was the chairman of the board of trustee of a Dutch based international development organization and executive member of board of trustee, CareGumbia. He is currently a PhD Candidate in RMAP.

received his Phd in Geophysics from the University of California at Berkeley in 1989. He began postdoctoral work in deep earth structure and numerical seismology at the ANU's Research School of Sciences, where he became a research fellow before taking a position with the Japan Marine Science Technology Center (JAMSTEC) in 1997. At JAMSTEC he led the numerical modelling team of JAMSTECS's Plate Dynamics Research Program, which studied subduction zone earthquakes and tsunamis. He moved to Geoscience Australia (GA) in 2002 to take up a position as leader of GA’s Earthquake Hazard and Neotectonics Project, where his research focused on hazard due to intraplate earthquakes. He played a major role in the establishment of the Australian Tsunami Warning System following the 2004 Indian Ocean Tsunami, and is now Chief Scientist of GA's Risk and Impact Analysis Group.

Argument Panel

Argument Moderator

is a mathematician with a PhD in mathematics from Flinders University. Peter is interested in several mathematical problems related to climate change mitigation policy.

is an environmental economist at RMAP and deputy director of the ANU Climate Change Institute. He has worked on the economics and policy of climate change for the last decade, most recently for the Garnaut Climate Change Review. He also does research on broader issues of development and economic reform, and has worked on and in Indonesia at various points in time.

Ciaran O’Faircheallaigh is Professor of Politics and Public Policy at Griffith University, Brisbane. He has published numerous articles and books in the fields of public policy, resource economics and resources policy, negotiation, impact assessment and Indigenous studies. He has worked for over 15 years with Indigenous organisations on negotiation of mining agreements, and has acted as an adviser or negotiator for the Cape York, Northern, Central, Yamatji and Kimberley Land Councils. He is currently advising the Kimberley Land Council on negotiations in relation to natural gas development in the Kimberley.

Colin Filer is Convenor of the Resource Management in Asia-Pacific Program in The Australian National University's College of Asia and the Pacific. He is an expert on the social context and impact of resource development and conservation projects in Melanesia. He has engaged with the extractive industry sector as a teacher, researcher, consultant and policy maker since taking up an appointment at the University of PNG in 1983. He played a significant role in drafting the benefit-sharing provisions of PNG’s Oil and Gas Act in 1998, and has more drafted a number of policy papers for the PNG Government under the terms of the Mining Sector Institutional Strengthening Project funded by the World Bank in 2002-2003.

Joint seminar with State, Society and Governance in Melanesia

Prior to joining the ANU, Professor Stephen Howes worked on the Garnaut Climate Change Review. Before that, he was with the World Bank and the Australian Agency for International Development.

is Principal Research Fellow at the ARC Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies at James Cook University. Simon is a biologist with an interest in nearshore fishery management in the Asia-Pacific region. Most of his work to date has been in Papua New Guinea and Solomon Islands.

represents the Tuvalu Government in numerous international fora including the World Summit on Sustainable Development, Commission for Sustainable Development, UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) and the Kyoto Protocol, Convention on Biological Diversity, and United Nations General Assembly. He is the spokesperson for the Alliance of Small Island States on mitigation in the consideration of future climate change regimes and is currently undertaking a part-time doctorate through the Fenner School of Environment and Society (ANU) looking at land use change and forestry issues under the UNFCCC and the Kyoto Protocol.

works for Oxfam Australia as the Climate Change Advocacy Coordinator. She coordinates Oxfam Australia’s policy and advocacy work on the issue of climate change, specifically its impact on people in developing countries and Australia’s involvement in international climate change negotiations. From 2003 to 2008 she was the Executive Officer at Climate Action Network Australia (CANA), a network of more than 50 civil society organisations. She was on the Board of CAN International in 2008 and is a regular participant in international climate negotiations.

Kate is a Masters candidate with Geographical Science (ANU). She has been involved with Dr Kuntala Lahiri-Dutt(Fellow, RMAP) in the Water Diary research since the pilot survey was undertaken in 07/08. Kate now leads the research project, and will be presenting a poster outlining the Water Diary methodology to the Singapore International Water Week Convention in June 2009.

is currently an Affiliated Member the the Centre for Applied Philosophy and Public Ethics, ANU. He has lectured at the University of Papua New Guinea (1972-74) University of Adelaide (1974-90) and Charles Sturt University (1990-2002). In 2002 he became an Honorary Affiliated Member of the Centre for Applied Philosophy and Public Ethics at ANU.

Kate is a Masters candidate with Geographical Science (ANU). She has been involved with Dr Kuntala Lahiri-Dutt (Fellow, RMAP) in the Water Diary research since the pilot survey was undertaken in 07/08. Kate now leads the research project, and will be presenting a poster outlining the Water Diary methodology to the Singapore International Water Week Convention in June 2009.

is an anthropologist with extensive field and consultancy experience in Papua New Guinea working as Research Fellow with the State, Society and Governance in Melanesia Program, ANU. His research interests include: Melanesian ethnography; medical anthropology; gender; and gender-based violence.

is currently Leverhulme Trust Professor of Social Anthropology at the University of St. Andrews, Scotland and Visiting Fellow in RMAP, ANU, as well as a practising consultant anthropologist in both PNG and Australia. He is the co-editor, with Katie Glaskin, of the volume, Customary Land Tenure and Registration in Australia and Papua New Guinea: Anthropological Perspectives.

Tim Curtin holds a MSc (Econ) from London School of Economics (1963); lectured in economics at Universities of Zimbabwe & York (UK) (1964-70) and has been economic adviser and consultant in Tanzania, Kenya, Egypt, Nigeria and Papua New Guinea (1970-2001).

Tim Anderson is a Senior Lecturer in Political Economy at the University of Sydney, writing on various aspects of development and trade, including economic self-determination, privatisation and rights in development.

Colin Filer holds a Ph.D. in Social Anthropology from the University of Cambridge; taught at the Universities of Glasgow and Papua New Guinea; was Projects Manager for the UPNG's consulting company from 1991 to 1994 after which time he headed the Social and Environmental Studies Division of the PNG National Research Institute. Since 2001, he has been the Convenor of the Resource Management in Asia-Pacific Program at ANU.

is a PhD candidate in RMAP, examining the impact of renewable energy technologies and oil price volatility on energy security in Kiribati and Fiji. He has a background in economics and political science.

is a founding member of the Asia Forest Network, a coalition of planners, policy makers, government foresters, scientists, researchers, and NGOs working to supporting the role of communities in protection and sustainable use of Asia's forests. He is also Executive Director of Environmental Science for Social Change, a Philippines based institution that aims to promote environmental sustainability and social justice through the integration of scientific methodologies and social processes.

is a Fellow in RMAP with research interests that include: social mapping and land ownership in Melanesia; social impacts of mining; governance and traditional politics in Papua New Guinea; Native Title research in Torres Strait and among rainforest Aboriginal groups in North Queensland; genealogy in Australia and Melanesia.

is Convenor of RMAP with research interests that include: social context and impact of resource management policies and resource conservation or development projects in Melanesia.

is a PhD candidate in RMAP. His principal research has been done in a village in Chiang Mai, Thailand and as a visiting research follow in Regional Center for Social Science and Sustainable Development (RCSD), Chiang Mai University.

is a PhD candidate in The ANU College of Law examining, from a gender perspective, the operation of land tenure systems in Solomon Islands and Vanuatu and policy discourses regarding the appropriate direction of land reform. She is a geographer and lawyer with interests on human rights and natural resource management.

is one of the world's leading CDM experts, teaching international climate policy at the University of Zurich and senior founding partner of the CDM consultancy Perspectives.

is a Solomon Islander analyst and scientist who has worked across civil society, academic and policy roles in NZ and the Pacific. He co-founded the Islands Knowledge Institute (IKI), is a Research Associate at the Macmillan Brown Centre for Pacific Studies at the University of Canterbury, and serves on the Compliance Committee of the Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety.