Dr Eklabya Sharma is the Strategic Advisor and Distinguished Senior Fellow of Ashoka Trust for Research in Ecology and the Environment (ATREE), Bangalore, India.

He is also a Chairperson of Scientific Advisory Committee of the G.B. Pant National Institute of Himalayan Environment under the Ministry of Environment, Forests and Climate Change, Government of India; and Policy Advisor, International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development (ICIMOD), Kathmandu, Nepal.

An ecologist with over 35 years of experience in sustainable development, he has contributed to research and development as Regional Head of the G.B. Pant National Institute of Himalayan Environment in Sikkim, India and the Deputy Director General at the International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development (ICIMOD), Kathmandu, Nepal. He was Vice-Chancellor of TERI School of Advanced Studies, New Delhi, India.

His expertise is on biodiversity conservation, natural resources, transboundary landscape management, biogeochemical cycling in ecosystems including agroforestry systems, climate change impact assessments, adaptation and nature-based solutions, and resilience building. Dr Sharma has expedience in contributing to policies at national, regional and international levels; and managing relationships with regional member countries of the Hindu Kush Himalaya and international donors.

Dr Sharma was a Chief Editor of Journal of Hill Research and served the journal Tropical Ecology. He served as the Asia Regional Editor of the Mountain Research and Development (MRD) journal and also was one of the Directors of the International Mountain Society, Switzerland.

Dr Sharma was elected as the Fellow of the National Institute of Ecology (NIE), India 1994; Fellow of the National Academy of Sciences (NASI), India 1999; and Fellow of the Indian National Science Academy (INSA), India 2014.

Dr Sharma contributed to many global discourses including promoting the mountain agenda in UNFCCC, CBD and SDG processes and helping to close science gaps on Hindu Kush Himalaya mountain knowledge in IPCC and IPBES processes. He organized and guided the 5-yr Hindu Kush Himalaya Assessment process engaging 350+ leading researchers, practitioners, experts, and policymakers that Springer Nature published as the 2019 Hindu Kush Himalaya Assessment.

Dr Sharma contributed to many national and international initiatives of which to mention some are: Honorary Trustee of The Mountain Institute, USA; Member of Steering Committee of the UNEP’s “Global Mountain Waste Management Outlook”, coordinated by UNEP Vienna Office; Member of Steering Committee of the Nutrition in Mountain Agriculture Programme of Switzerland in three Continents namely Asia, Africa and South America; Member of the Silk Road Development Global Think Tank with Secretariat at the Institute of Geographical Sciences and Natural Resources Research, Beijing, China; Member of Adhoc Expert Committee on Mountain Biodiversity of the Convention on Biological Diversity, Montreal, Canada; Member of the Expert Panel on ‘Research for Development’ call of the Swiss National Science Foundation and Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation, Switzerland; Member Steering Committee of IUCN’s ‘The Asia Protected Areas Partnership’, IUCN Regional Office Bangkok, Thailand; Member of Governing Council of Sikkim Manipal University of Health, Medical & Technological Sciences, Sikkim, India; Advisor, Mountain Environment and Development, Chief Minister’s Office, Government of Sikkim; and Member of Board, SaciWaters, India.

Dr Sharma received many national and international awards including the Young Scientist Award of the Indian National Science Academy 1988; Vishisht Vaigyanik Puraskar (Eminent Scientist Award) from the Ministry of Environment, Forests, and Climate Change, Government of India 1995; and Honorable Mention Paper Award from the Soil and Water Conservation Society, USA 1999. He received the “Excellence Award” for contributions in Science and Environment towards development of the Modern India from the Sikkim University and Government of Sikkim in 2017, and the Government of Sikkim also conferred on him its ‘Social Status Award’ for his contribution on the environment in 2004.

Dr Sharma has more than 200 publications in the form of books, book chapters and research papers in international journals.