Dr Robert (Bob) Fisher is an anthropologist and human geographer. His PhD in anthropology involved a study of human ecology in the Thar Desert in Rajasthan. Since working for the Nepal–Australia Forestry Project between 1987 and 1989, he has specialised in anthropological and sociological aspects of natural resource and environmental management, particularly forestry.
Much of his work has focused on the sociology of communities involved in forest activities, including Indigenous peoples, and on their interaction with developmental and environmental agencies. He was Deputy Director of the Regional Community Forestry Center for Asia and the Pacific (RECOFTC) in Bangkok between 1997 and 2001 and was a long-term advisor to IUCN The International Union for Conservation of Nature, focusing on land and resource tenure and poverty and conservation. Research and consultancy experience includes work in Nepal, India, Mongolia, Kyrgyzstan, Iran, Thailand, Laos, Cambodia, Vietnam, Papua New Guinea, the Philippines, Mozambique, Liberia and Ghana.
Research areas
- Community/social forestry
- Forest policy
- Sociology of natural resource management, especially forestry
- Livelihoods, poverty reduction and conservation
- Action research
Dr Bob Fisher's specialist areas of knowledge include community forestry, natural resource management, REDD+, poverty and conservation, protected area governance