Sango has a background in Human Geography and Development Studies and has worked on the social and political dimensions of resource management and development in teaching, research and professional advisory roles in a range of organisations in Australia and the Asia-Pacific. Sango’s country experience covers the Mekong region, India, and the Pacific. She currently coordinates the Master of Applied Anthropology and Participatory Development, for which she teaches two related courses on Resource Management and Indigenous Peoples and Mining and Indigenous Peoples.

Research interests/expertise

• Political and livelihood aspects of collaborative resource management
• Political ecology of payments for environmental services and REDD (reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation)
• Collective action and pollution management in Vietnam
• Social learning and capacity building.

Current projects

Sango's research broadly addresses the social and political aspects of natural resource management in the Asia-Pacific region. Along with Crawford colleagues, Luca Tacconi and Helen Suich, Sango is a co-investigator in a project on the livelihood implications of payment for environmental service schemes, and implications for new schemes to protect forests for climate change mitigation (reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation or REDD). A co-edited book presenting the findings of this study is due for release in 2010. The project was supported by an AusAID Australian Development Research Award.

Sango is also collaborating with the Institute of Policy and Strategy for Agriculture and Rural Development in Hanoi on a project titled Crafting Sustainability: addressing water pollution from Vietnam's craft villages. Supported by an AusAID Australian Development Research Awards, the project aims to understand the drivers of pollution from craft villages in the Red River Delta of northern Vietnam, as a basis for policy recommendations to redress the growing pollution issue in this region.

Sango is currently serving as the Chief Investigator of an Australian Research Council (ARC) funded project, “The Political Ecology of Forest Carbon - mainland Southeast Asia's new commodity frontier?” The project aims to explore how forest users in Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos are responding to the complex local, national, and regional effects of international efforts to reduce deforestation.

Selected publications

• Tacconi, L., S. Mahanty and H. Suich, (eds) (forthcoming), Livelihoods in the REDD? Payments for Environmental Services, Forest Conservation and Climate Change, Edward Elgar, Cheltenham. (accepted February 2010 and includes two co-authored chapters)
• Mahanty, S., Y. Yasmi, J. Guernier, R. Ukkerman, L. Nass (2009) Relationships, learning and trust: lessons from the SNV-RECOFTC partnership, Development in Practice. 19(7): 859-872.
• Mahanty, S., J. Guernier and Y. Yasmi (2009) A Fair Share? Sharing the benefits and costs of collaborative forest management, International Forestry Review.11(2): 268-280.
• Mahanty, S, N. Stacey, P. Holland, A. Wright and S. Menzies (2007) Learning to Learn: designing monitoring plans in the Pacific Islands International Waters Programme, Oceans and Coastal Management. 50(2007): 392-410.
• Keen, M. and S. Mahanty (2006) Learning in Sustainable Natural Resource Management: Challenges and Opportunities in the Pacific, Society and Natural Resources, 19:497–513.
• Mahanty, S., J. Gronow, M. Nurse and Y. Malla (2006) Reducing Poverty through Community Based Forest Management in Asia Journal of Forests and Livelihoods 5(1): 78-89.
• Mahanty, S. and D. Russell (2002) High Stakes: working with stakeholders in the Biodiversity Conservation Network, Society and Natural Resources 15: 179-188.
• Mahanty, S (2002) Conservation and Development Interventions as Networks: the case of the India Ecodevelopment Project, Karnataka World Development 30: 1369-1386.

Career highlights

Advisor to the Ministry of Forests, Environment and Conservation, Solomon Islands on the social and institutional dimensions of community-based conservation; Convener of the Bachelor of Park Management and a research partnerships program with Parks Victoria from 2001-2003 at Deakin University; coordinated research and regional dialogues on recent experiences and emerging issues in forests, poverty and governance at the Regional Community Training Centre for Asia and the Pacific from 2005-2007.

[back]