Announcing the commencement of operations of OCeAN, Prof. Ganesh
Shivakoti stated that the Center will focus on publications, hosting
scholarly discussions to draft advanced theoretical volumes, organizing
and supporting training, engaging in policy dialogue with decision
makers, and organizing grant writing workshops. Named after Nobel
laureate Elinor Claire Ostrom, the Center will be based in AIT’s School
of Environment, Resources and Development (SERD).
With participants arriving from 13 countries, the three-day retreat at
AIT from 14-16 June sought to identify book contributors, volume
editors for South and Southeast Asia, as well as authors for the
seminal volume on issues related to resource governance.These volumes
will be dedicated to Elinor Ostrom. The three-day retreat at AIT was
followed by two days of related activity at Chiang Mai University, and
a field visit in the Huay Joe community irrigation system area in
Sansai District of Chiang Mai.
Welcoming the participants, Dean of School of Environment, Resources
and Development (SERD), Prof. Rajendra Shrestha remarked that Asia is
witnessing massive land use changes, and this is closely related to
environmental degradation. In this context, the Ostrom Center can
work towards generating knowledge that will be beneficial to people of
this region.
Prof. Shivakoti remarked that Prof. Ostrom enjoyed a special
relationship with Nepal, and that she had mentioned the country eight
times in her Nobel acceptance speech. As the first woman recipient of
the Nobel prize in Economic Sciences, she had focussed on
“economic governance, especially the commons," - a concept that she had
examined closely in Nepal.
Participants at the inaugural event came from China, France, India,
Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, Nepal, Pakistan, Singapore, Thailand,
Vietnam, and USA. Organizations represented at the event included
Andalas University, Indonesia; Arizona State University (ASU), Tempe,
USA; Chiang Mai University, Thailand; Centre de Coopération
Internationale en Recherche Agronomique pour le Développement
(CIRAD)/AIT; Farmer Managed Irrigation Systems Promotion Trust
(FMIST), Nepal; Gujarat Institute of Development Research, Ahmedabad,
India; Hue University of Agriculture and Forestry, Vietnam; Institute
for Global Environmental Strategies (IGES), Hayama, Japan; Lancaster
Environment Centre, UK ; National University of Singapore, Singapore;
Nuclear Institute for Agriculture and Biology, Faisalabad, Pakistan;
Tongji University, Shanghai, China; University of Agriculture,
Peshawar, Pakistan; University of Peshawar, Pakistan; University
of Shanghai, China; and Universiti Putra Malaysia; Malaysia.
