ATREE

Ashoka Trust for Research in Ecology and the Environment (ATREE) is a research organisation focused on environmental conservation and sustainable, socially just development in India. It produces and shares interdisciplinary knowledge that both shapes and is shaped by the needs of grassroots communities, policymakers and the wider public.

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Its researchers explore, document and conserve plants and animals across India's landscapes. It also works on restoring degraded ecosystems and on water, food and livelihood security. ATREE puts strong weight on capacity building and runs its own Academy to train the next generation of scholars and conservation leaders.

Headquarters: Bengaluru, Karnataka, India

Major Areas of Work

• Exploration and Conservation: Surveying, documenting and conserving plants and animals across India's landscapes.

• Restoration: Reversing ecosystem degradation in ways suited to each landscape's ecology and to the needs of its people and biodiversity.

• Water and Food Security: Tackling water scarcity and food insecurity through sustainable practices, policy and partnerships that support ecological health and social equity.

• Sustainable Livelihoods: Supporting communities' customary and sustainable use of traditional resources such as non-timber forest products (NTFP) and grazing.

• Research and Capacity Building: Producing rigorous interdisciplinary research and training scholars and practitioners in conservation science and sustainability.

Major Initiatives and Programmes

• Community Conservation Centres: Five field centres at Vembanad, Male Mahadeshwara Hills, Biligiri Rangaswamy Temple Tiger Reserve, Agasthyamalai and Darjeeling that combine place-based research with community action.

• PhD Programme: An interdisciplinary doctoral programme at ATREE's Academy for Conservation Science and Sustainability Studies, open to students from any discipline.

• MSc Environmental Studies (Conservation Practice): A Master's course that gives natural and social science students the interdisciplinary knowledge and skills to address conservation challenges.

• Certificate Courses: Short courses that combine field and classroom sessions for people interested in the environment and sustainable development.

• Environment Education: A programme that promotes environmental understanding and action among different groups of people around three themes: land, water and forests.

The Community Conservation Centres are ATREE's long-term presence in the field. The Biligiri Rangaswamy Temple Tiger Reserve centre in Chamarajanagar district, Karnataka, was set up in 1992. It works with the Soliga community on livelihoods, community rights and the assessment of important species. The Darjeeling centre, set up in 1998, carries out place-based research in the Darjeeling and Kalimpong districts of the Eastern Himalaya. The Agasthyamalai centre (2001) works in southern Tamil Nadu. The Vembanad centre (2007) works on wetland conservation, livelihoods and climate action around the Ramsar-listed lake in Alappuzha district, Kerala. The Male Mahadeshwara Hills centre (2008), in southeast Karnataka on the Tamil Nadu border, works with local communities on the continued, sustainable harvest of forest resources.

Impact

ATREE states that its researchers have discovered more than 100 new species across India. Its own site also cites more than 10,000 hectares of forest rights secured and more than 1,000 livelihoods impacted.

ATREE suits people who want their work to sit where research meets practice, including ecologists, social scientists, water and livelihoods specialists, and educators. Its field sites run from Kerala's wetlands and the Western Ghats to the Eastern Himalaya. Staff work closely with forest-dwelling communities and with policymakers. Because ATREE also runs PhD, Master's and certificate programmes, staff get exposure to teaching, mentoring and interdisciplinary teamwork. It fits people who care equally about rigorous science and the rights of the communities who depend on these ecosystems.