Research

The Governance Quality Paradox: Commons Institutions and Pandemic Risk

How do institutional strengths become vulnerabilities? Drawing on 873 households across 55 Community Forest User Groups in Nepal's mid-hills, this study identifies a governance quality paradox: stronger forest commons governance reduced households' socioeconomic exposure to COVID-19 while simultaneously increasing infection risk through participatory assemblies and collective monitoring. Using bivariate probit regression and FAMD-constructed governance indices, the findings demonstrate that institutional resilience is shock-specific rather than a general attribute. Manuscript in preparation.

How Leaders in Forest Commons Navigate the Trade-off Between Stability and Change

Why do some governance domains change while others resist transformation? Using Plackett-Luce modeling of ranked preference data from 144 Community Forest User Group leaders, this study shows that institutional robustness is domain-contingent: leaders defend stability in domains central to state legitimacy while remaining selectively open to change in operational domains. Female leaders resist resource marketization; leaders with government experience favour adaptive compliance over rigid enforcement. Manuscript in preparation.

Participatory Cost-Benefit Analysis: Spring Revival in the Hindu Kush Himalaya

What is the economic case for nature-based water interventions in mountain communities? Drawing on participatory cost-benefit analysis across 398 households in the Indian Himalayan Region, this study demonstrates that community-based spring revival projects yield positive net benefits driven by time savings in water collection, health improvements from reduced waterborne diseases, and increased fodder availability. Monte Carlo sensitivity analysis confirmed a 100% probability of positive returns across a range of scenarios. Manuscript in preparation.

Hurricane Helene and the Southern Forest Sector

How do large-scale natural disasters reshape forest-dependent economies? As a Postdoctoral Research Scholar at North Carolina State University, I am evaluating the comprehensive economic impacts of Hurricane Helene on the Southern forest sector in collaboration with the U.S. Forest Service, combining stakeholder surveys, salvage timber market analysis, and supply chain modeling to inform recovery and resilience planning. Research in progress.

Precipitation Reverses Fire Severity Relationships Across Global Mountain Fire Regimes

Does precipitation always suppress wildfire? Using 229,178 Landsat observations across six mountain systems on six continents (2013–2023), this study shows that precipitation–severity relationships reverse between climate-limited and fuel-limited mountain systems. Panel regression with fixed effects and harmonic phenological modeling reveal that wetter conditions suppress fire in fuel-rich forests but increase severity in fuel-limited systems by promoting biomass accumulation. Manuscript under review at Global Change Biology. Data and code available via Zenodo (DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.18421412).