Shankar Aswani

Professor Shankar Aswani is affiliated with Rhodes University in the College of Anthropology. His academic rank is Professor, and he has been actively engaged in research spanning the Western Solomon Islands, Madagascar, and South Africa.

• Current research focuses on marine indigenous environmental knowledge, climate change adaptation, community-based resource management, and anthropological methods.
• He leads the Western Solomons Conservation Program (WSCP) and has secured funding from organizations such as the MacArthur and Packard Foundations, Conservation International (CI), National Science Foundation (NSF), and Pew Charitable Trusts.
• His work has resulted in the establishment of 30 locally managed Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) and small-scale rural development initiatives.

Article Trends: Recent publications emphasize coastal vulnerability assessments, governance mapping, local ecological knowledge, and marine conservation strategies. Methodologies include interdisciplinary collaboration, ethnographic studies, and policy frameworks.

Scientific Awards:

• Pew Fellowship in Marine Conservation (2005)
• NRF B1 rating (2015–2020)

Grants and Projects: Aswani has received funding for initiatives such as Sandisa Imbewu (2015–2018), a NRF grant on human dynamics in South Africa’s fisheries, and long-term projects in the Solomon Islands (1999–present) and Madagascar (2016–2018).