Vijay Kolinjivadi
PhD Candidate, Bioresource Engineering (supervisors: Jan Adamowski and Nicolas Kosoy)
Bio
Born in the United States with parents emigrated from Tamil Nadu, India, Vijay obtained his degree in Biology with an honours specialization in conservation and ecological management from the University of Edinburgh. He then went on to develop conservation education problems which focused on the science of ecology within public school curricula in Singapore. While he understood the principles of ecological relationships, he felt that he needed more understanding and training in how such knowledge could be applied to the activities of human society. He pursued a Masters in Environmental Policy and Regulation from the London School of Economics and carried out research which sought to understand how public perceptions on environmental benefits are formulated and expressed. While pursuing his Masters degree and during an internship with the United Nations Environment Programme, he became inspired by a particular conservation policy tool known as ‘Payments for Ecosystem Services’ (PES) which seeks to integrate human development and ecological principles built along negotiation through collective action. Upon completion of his Masters degree, he spent the following year and a half conducting local research on the concept of PES in the U.S. state of Oregon as well as in China and Vietnam through the work of the Center for International Forestry Research.
Research Interests
His current research is to consider the concept of PES from an
ecological economics perspective, which eschews a predominantly
neoliberal conceptualization of ‘payment’ based on assumptions of
self-interested actors and minimal informational
asymmetry in favour of fair and equitable incentives that reflect the
social interest in the management of natural resources. Specifically,
his study will analyse the potential for socially equitable ‘payments’
to be designed in the form of increasing human
capabilities as conceived by Indian Nobel Prize winning economist
Amartya Sen. He is also interested in the role that PES can play within
wider governance of the global commons. He is currently carrying out
research in the Kathmandu Valley of Nepal in which
PES is being proposed to incentivize upstream communities located
within a National Park to become stewards of forest and water resources
for the benefit of 40% of the Valley’s drinking water supply.
Degrees Received
B.Sc. (Honours) Ecological Sciences (2002-2006): University of Edinburgh
M.Sc. Environmental Policy & Regulation (2007-2009): London School of Economics & Political Sciences
M.Sc. Environmental Policy & Regulation (2007-2009): London School of Economics & Political Sciences
Publications
Kolinjivadi, V. (2012). The Construction of
Perceptions on the Environmental and Managerial Considerations of an
Urban Green Space. International Journal of Public Opinion Research.
doi: 10.1093/ijpor/eds013.
Kolinjivadi, V. and Sunderland, T. (2012). A Review of Two Payment Schemes for Watershed Services from China and Vietnam: the Interface of Government Control and PES Theory. Ecology and Society 17 (4): 10.
Kolinjivadi, V. and Sunderland, T. (2012). A Review of Two Payment Schemes for Watershed Services from China and Vietnam: the Interface of Government Control and PES Theory. Ecology and Society 17 (4): 10.
Presentations
Reconsidering water resource management through nested institutions: a
role for payments for ecosystem services (PES)" Second New Commons
Workshop: Building Resilience with Common Capital, Colombo, Sri Lanka:
May 28-30, 2012
Awards
Richard H. Tomlinson Doctoral Fellowship (2011- present)
Contact
vijay dot kolinjivadi at mail dot mcgill dot ca