Anita Shrestha is chairperson of Rupantaran Nepal who is Post Doctorate Research Fellow of a collaborative project between Griffith University (GU) Australia, University of Southern Queensland (USQ) Australia, Red Panda Network (RPN), and Kathmandu Forestry College (KAFCOL for doing research of Boreal & Temperate Primary Forest Research: Nepal Red Panda Case Study. She did PhD in Sociology from the Tribhuvan University, Nepal. Her PhD dissertation was on “Climate Change: Impacts on Livelihoods and adaptation as perceived by Farmers in Tamakoshi River Basin’.

She had more than 20 years work experience in the field of community forest management, natural resource management, climate change and biodiversity conservation, women empowerment, livelihood improvement, eco-tourism, gender and social inclusion (GESI), women micro enterprise development, governance, advocacy and lobbying, research and development. She had worked with Nepal Swiss Community Forestry Project in different positions (Forest Development Assistant, Forest Development Officer, Senior Forest Development Officer) for about 14 years (from 1997 to 2011). Then she worked at Rupantaran Nepal as Senior Development Officer for 3 months. Additionally she worked with the HIMAWANTI Nepal as Project Director for three years (2016-2018). Then she was associated with The Resource Nepal as team leader for research on three projects- “Review of Forest Management and Operational Plans and Needs Identification for Linking Climate Change Impacts and Fragility in selected Municipalities of Far-Western Province and Province 5, Nepal” for Practical Action and UNEP; “Assessment of Linkages between Climate Change Impacts on Natural Resources and Fragility Risks in selected Municipalities of Far-Western Province and Province 5, Nepal”; and “Third National Communication Report on Climate Change (CC) report preparation of Ministry of Forest and Environment, Nepal.’’ Furthermore, she was consultant in Helvetas Nepal for Women in Forest and Water Resource Governance in Nepal, Eight Districts (Eastern & the Western Cluster), Nepal for 3 months.

She has developed and implemented more than a dozen of community forest related activities. She has expertise on GESI, good governance, knowledge management, community forestry, livelihood enhance/generations, impact assessment, socio-economic studies and stakeholder analysis. Her contributions on natural resource management especially in community forestry, climate change, governance, CF based ecotourism development and micro forest based enterprise development. She has visited forty districts of Nepal during her professional carrier. She has designed several programs for the betterment of affected people especially for women, poor and marginalized groups in relation to various governmental and non-governmental organizations. She also visited the UK, Israel, China, Thailand and India for participating in conference, training, and workshop and research paper presentation. She has published more than 25 academic articles in different Journals.

Over the years, she has received many awards, felicitation, scholarship and fellowship. She is also World Pulse Ambassador for Nepal and got world pulse encourager runner up award in 2020. She has got scholarship from different organization for study in the different level. She got Ph.D. Scholarship from University Grant Commission (UGC) Nepal and National Foundation for Development of Indigenous Nationalities (NFDIN) Nepal. She is also international member of Business and Professional Women (BPW) and member of International Sociological Association. And she is a member of GESI working group of Ministry of Forest and Environment.

Membership in Professional Associations:
Ambassador of World Pulse
Chairperson of Rupantaran Nepal
Member of International Sociological Association (ISA).
International, National and Local Member of Business and Professional Women (BPW).
Executive Member of Sociological and Anthropological Society of Nepal (SASON).
Life Member of Nawajyoti Youth Club, Khandadevi, Ramechhap, Nepal.
Life Member of Nepal English Teacher Association (NELTA).