K.N. Ninan

Karachepone N. Ninan (born 31 August 1950) is an ecological economist.

Dr. Ninan was born in Nairobi, Kenya where he had his early school education.

Thereafter he relocated to India where he continued his high school and college education.

These include: National Merit Scholarship (1967 - 1972); University Merit Scholarship (1972 - 1974).

Dr. Ninan obtained his bachelor's degree in economics, Political Science and Indian History from the University of Kerala in 1972 and master's degree in economics from the University of Kerala in 1974.

Dr. Ninan joined the Institute for Social and Economic Change (ISEC), Bangalore in 1978 where he held several research and faculty positions between 1978 and 2012.

He was awarded a PhD fellowship by the Institute for Social and Economic Change, Bangalore and obtained Ph.D. in economics from the University of Mysore in 1985.

He also attended an International Summer School in Development Economics and Mathematics for Economists at the London School of Economics during June–August 1992.

He was awarded Visiting Fellowships of: British Council Visitor to CSERGE, University College London and London School of Economics (May 1992); Institute of Developing Economies, Tokyo (June–December 1995); Institute of Development Studies, University of Sussex, UK (April 1998 - June 1998); Indo-French Exchange Fellowship at Maison Des Sciences De L’Homme, Paris (October 2000); Japan Foundation Research Fellowship at University of Tokushima and University of Tokyo (January 2001 - June 2001), and Japan Society for Promotion of Science (JSPS) Long Term Invitation Fellowship at University of Tokyo (1 April 2010 - 31 January 2011).

These include: University of Versailles, France (1 March to 30 April 2000); University of Tokyo (1 October 2004 - 30 September 2005; 5 January 2015 - 30 June 2015); University of California, Donald Bren School of Environmental Science and Management, Santa Barbara, USA (1 September - 31 December 2008); University of Cambridge, UK (1 March 2014 to 31 March 2014); and ICCR Chair Professor at the University of Gothenburg, Sweden (Spring Semester: 6 March 2016 to 16 June 2016).

He has received numerous awards and fellowships.

He became Professor of Ecological Economics in 2006 and held this position until August 2012.

He was also Head of the Centre for Ecological Economics and Natural Resources in the same institute.

Dr Ninan was also Contributing Author to UNEP's TEEB Report on National and International Policy Making (2011).

He was recently invited as Lead Author for Working Group III contribution to the Sixth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).

Dr Ninan's expertise in biodiversity and ecosystem services valuation and climate economics has also been sought by the Indian Ministry of Environment, Forests and Climate Change (MoEFCC).

He was selected as an expert member of study teams constituted by the Indian Ministry of Environment, Forests and Climate Change (MoEFCC) to advise the government on biodiversity and ecosystem services and prepare India's response to the Durban Platform on Climate Change.

In February 2013, along with two colleagues, he founded the Centre for Economics, Environment and Society (CEES), a non-profit organisation in Bangalore working in the interface of development and environment and has been its chairperson and Honorary Professor since then.

Dr Ninan has had a distinguished professional career.

He was invited as Visiting Professor at several international Universities and Institutions where he taught and/or conducted research in ecological/environmental economics especially on the economics and valuation of biodiversity and ecosystem services, sustainable use and management of forest and water resources, and climate economics.

In recognition of his outstanding contribution to scientific knowledge and understanding about the economics of biodiversity conservation and valuation of forest ecosystem services, Dr Ninan was nominated as Co-chair of a global assessment with over eighty scientists and experts from around the world to prepare a Methodological Assessment Report on Scenarios and Models of Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services by the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES) in 2014.

Dr. Ninan was also part of the PHASE 2 team of this IPBES deliverable (2016-2019) that was tasked with developing an evolving guide for policy makers on the use of scenarios and models of biodiversity and ecosystem services, and develop scenarios suited for IPBES.

In 2016 he was elected as the Vice President of the Indian Society for Ecological Economics (INSEE) which is the regional chapter of the International Society for Ecological Economics (ISEE).

In 2018 he was elected as President of INSEE for the period 2018–2020.

He was appointed as a Senior Fellow in the World Resources Institute, New Delhi (from December 15, 2020)

Dr Ninan's research has focused on understanding the economics and institutional aspects of biodiversity conservation in the tropical forests of the Western Ghats biodiversity hotspot in Southern India which is one of the thirty-five biodiversity hotspots in the world.

His work among the local communities of the tropical forests of the Western Ghats biodiversity hotspot is noteworthy.

Besides economics and valuation of biodiversity and forest ecosystem services Dr. Ninan's research has focused on sustainable use and management of forest and water resources; sustainable agriculture; impact assessment of watershed and community forestry projects; climate resilience, adaptation and climate change impacts; and poverty studies.

He has published about 14 books and 70 papers on these topics.

His books include:

He has published papers in top rated journals such as:

His articles in newspapers/weeklies include the following:

In 2020 he was honoured and conferred the title of Honorary INSEE Fellow by the Indian Society for Ecological Economics.