Sudhir Chandra Das, is a serving forest officer in the state of West Bengal, India. He did his PhD from Burdwan University in Botany. He served as Divisional Forest Officer in Bankura South & North Division for more than 7 years. He has served 30 years in Participatory Forest Management System in different capacities as Assistant Conservator of Forests, Deputy Conservator of Forests, Conservator of Forests and Chief Conservator of Forests. He has worked in World Bank-funded West Bengal Forestry Project from 1992 to 1997 and India Eco-Development Project from 1997 to 2001. He has served in Mangrove Tiger-land of Sundarban Tiger Reserve, West Bengal, India, as Chief Conservator of Forests and Field Director. Dr. Das has published 18 articles in different journals of national and international repute.Pullaiah Thammineni is a former Professor in the Department of Botany at Sri Krishnadevaraya University in Andhra Pradesh, India, where he has taught for more than 35 years. He was President of Indian Botanical Society (2014), President of the Indian Association for Angiosperm Taxonomy (2013) and Fellow of Andhra Pradesh Akademi of Sciences. Under his guidance 54 students obtained their doctoral degrees. He has authored 53 books, edited 22 books and published over 330 research papers, including reviews and book chapters. He was a member of Species Survival Commission of the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN). Professor Pullaiah received his PhD from Andhra University, India, attended Moscow State University, Russia, and worked as Post-Doctoral Fellow during 1976–1978.Elizabeth Ashton is currently Honorary Research Fellow at Queen’s University Belfast, UK. She completed her DPhil on mangrove biodiversity, community ecology and ecosystem functioning in relation to management practices in Peninsular Malaysia, from the University of York in 1999. She has taught on the Mangrove Ecosystem Management module on theInternational Master’s Course on Integrated Tropical Coastal Zone Management as an adjunct Professor at the Asian Institute of Technology, Bangkok, Thailand. She has worldwide collaborative research experience on mangrove ecosystems with a wide range of stakeholders through the World Bank Mangrove Code of Conduct, Danida projects in SE Asia teaching at AIT, Thailand, and Cantho University, Vietnam. She has 15 years research and consultancy experience on tropical coastal biodiversity and ecosystem management.
