Dr. Ghazala Shahabuddin has a PhD in Ecology and Conservation Biology from Duke University, USA (1998) for which she studied the ecology of frugivorous butterfly species in habitat fragments in Venezuela. She has carried out pioneering field studies in the lowland and mid-altitudinal Kumaon Himalayas and in Aravalli Hills to understand influence of land use change on forest birds, particularly woodpeckers; and to derive patterns of local extinction and adaptation across bird taxa. Dr. Shahabuddin has also published extensively in the area of wildlife policy and politics in India. Her book ‘Conservation at the Crossroads’ (Permanent Black, 2010) critically examines contemporary wildlife policy and implementation in India. She worked as an Associate Professor at Dr. B.R. Ambedkar University in Delhi from 2009-14 where she helped develop the University’s flagship Master’s programme in Environment and Development. She is currently researching ecological and institutional change in multiple-use forest in parallel with guide-training activities for nature-based tourism in the Kumaon hills.