Deepa Pullanikkatil's profile
Prof. Charlie Shackleton (Research chair in Interdisciplinary Science in Land and Natural Resource Use for Sustainable Livelihoods, Rhodes University) and Dr.Deepa Pullanikkatil put together a book, to present and illustrate the human side of Non-Timber Forest Products (NTFP) and their capacity for changing lives and poverty alleviation of some.
The rationale for the book was simple. There has been much academic and policy debate on the potential of NTFPs to alleviate poverty. The summary, quantitative stats may indicate that the potential is low, yet NTFPs certainly do provide an avenue out of poverty for some. In the quantitative analysis of the monetary values and percentages, the personal stories of those who have moved out of poverty have been lost. This book provides a suite of life stories and narratives of people who have lifted themselves out of poverty through trade in NTFPs. It is published by Springer Nature under their Sustainable Development Goals series, with this book addressing Goal number 1 to "End poverty". |
An Environmental Scientist with an engineering background, Deepa Pullanikkatil has 18 years of work experience in developing countries of Malawi, Lesotho, India, South Africa and Swaziland. She has travelled to over 20 countries for presenting papers and/or on work related visits.
She is currently a Consultant based at CANGO, Swaziland and also holds the position of Co-Director of "Sustainable Futures in Africa" (SFA) network, an interdisciplinary collective of academics and practitioners in UK and Africa. Her position of Co-Director is funded through Scottish Funding Council grant managed by the University of Glasgow. Deepa has visited the University of Glasgow in 2017 and 2018 for a number of conferences and meetings, funded by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council, UK and the Scottish Funding Council grant. In 2016-2017, she undertook a Post Doctoral Fellowship at Rhodes University in South Africa, researching on ecosystem services and poverty alleviation. Prior to that, she had worked at “Leadership for Environment And Development (LEAD) Southern and Eastern Africa” based in Malawi from 2010-2014. Deepa has a B Tech degree in Civil Engineering (India), Post Graduate Diploma in Management (India), Masters in Environmental Management (University of Free State, South Africa) and a PhD in Environmental Science from North West University, South Africa. Her interest areas include climate change adaptation, poverty alleviation, ecosystems services studies and water resources management. She has undertaken consultancy work for UNDP, UNEP, Governments of Malawi and Swaziland, GIZ and SADC. Besides environmental science, Deepa's passion is helping bring abundance to needy communities. She is undertaking poverty reduction and environmental protection in Malawi through a non-profit organization ABUNDANCE www.abundanceworldwide.org Deepa is granddaughter of award winning Malayalam writer Tatapuram Sukumaran, who has influenced her deeply. |
