Conservation and Protection of biodiversity is a complex puzzle that if solved, will lay down a pathway that will result in positive outcome for the planet, our society and marginalised communities !
Poorvasha Kar, our next pathbreaker, Project Coordinator at GroundUp Conservation, leads a research project to study locally-led conservation initiatives across South Asia and Myanmar.
Poorvasha talks to Shyam Krishnamurthy from The Interview Portal about opting for a degree in Liberal Arts for not only its interdisciplinary nature but also the ability to understand the bigger picture and the links between environmental and social issues.
For students, degrees don’t define your boundaries of skills, however what you do with them does.
Poorvasha, what were your growing up years like?
I grew up in New Delhi and chose the Humanities stream in 11th grade. I studied Mathematics, Economics, Psychology, Political Science, and English. Growing up, I was surrounded by many different types of knowledge –what we were taught through formal education at school, beliefs and customs that my multi-cultural family vouched for, and perspectives from across time and space that I found through books. Due to the fact that none of these authoritative sources of knowledge fully agreed with each other, I was always curious to explore the thin line between what was true and what we believed to be true about our world.
Translating this curiosity from ideas to practice, I took up every opportunity to assess the values, beliefs and actions of people around me and understand what drove them. Whether it was as the editor of the school magazine or the head girl of the student council, every position allowed me to challenge my understanding of authority and knowledge, and how they both shape each other. So, it was only natural when I decided to pursue an undergraduate degree at a liberal arts college in India. The primary driver of this choice was that a liberal arts education granted me the flexibility of studying everything that the university offered before committing to a major at the end of my second year.
What did you do for graduation/post graduation?
The 3 years I spent at Ashoka University, challenging my academic boundaries – from statistics, GIS, and conservation science to metaphysics, sociology, and environmental ethics – lay the foundation for a Philosophy and Environmental Studies student to work in the intersection of investment, technology, and climate innovation. Though I wanted to declare a major in environmental studies, as there was only an option to minor in it, I decided to major in philosophy and minor in environmental studies. However, declaring a major didn’t limit my academic exploration in my last year. The interdisciplinary nature of my undergraduate degree allowed me to transfer ideas from one field to another and understand the interconnectedness underlying our systems.
What were some of the key influences that led you to such an offbeat, unconventional, and unique career in Biodiversity Conservation?
While there were many philosophical schools of thought that influenced my career choice, one of the key ideas that drove me to become a systems researcher with a focus on climate adaptation and ecological preservation was of ecocentrism (“belief that ecosystems and the environment as a whole have intrinsic value, independent of their usefulness to humans”).
Using this philosophical lens to engage with the actual realities of our ecological systems in environmental classes, I realized that a majority of environmental policy and action is shaped mostly in relation to human needs. To challenge this mainstream narrative, I decided to become a systems researcher and reimagine the relationship between ecological and human systems. My goal is to uncover different ways of living that are focused on the interconnectedness between people and nature and reshape our current systems to be centered around such ways of life.
To test my ideas and learn from environmental practitioners, I worked with many research organizations during my undergraduate program to understand how sustainability and climate change impact different communities, especially marginalized groups.
These experiences allowed me to challenge my biases, acknowledge my privileged upbringing, and recognize the knowledge that exists in lived experiences. Eager to understand the bigger picture and the links between environmental and social issues, I turned to systems thinking as a guiding framework. Getting my first taste of systems thinking and design, in 2022, I placed third in Oxford University’s research competition for developing a systems-thinking research project that evaluated the environmental, social, political, and economic factors that make Assamese populations vulnerable to human trafficking.
While I wanted to start my career in the climate and environmental space, I graduated during the COVID pandemic when most organizations in the development and research sector were not hiring. As I knew I wouldn’t find a job linked to my areas of interest, I found a position that would allow me to put my academic knowledge to practice and gain new skills along the way.
Tell us about your career path
In my first job, I worked as a Risk Advisory and Investigations Associate at FTI Consulting. By resolving strategic issues for investors and other stakeholders through risk analysis, I not only learned to act as the first line of support for stakeholders navigating new sectors and geographies but also to undertake secondary and primary investigative research. While my first job did not offer any pathways to engage with grassroot environmental action, working with investors allowed me to understand the flow of private capital in India. As I conducted due diligence and investigations projects, I learned how to assess the financial valuations of companies and identify factors that posed long-term gains or risks in a particular sector.
This experience allowed me to transition to my second role at the Good Food Institute India, where I worked to increase public and private capital flow in the alternative protein sector, one of the few food security solutions for a climate adaptive world. As part of an international network of organisations, GFI advances alternative proteins to help meet climate, global health, food security, and biodiversity goals. As Innovation Associate, I led the GFIdeas India Community, a sector-wide initiative to foster community engagement and collaboration in the smart protein industry. With a background in risk advisory and investigations, at GFI India, I led our investor advisory work by supporting investors’ exploration of investment routes in the Indian smart protein landscape. I also worked closely with early-stage entrepreneurs to support them on their journey of scaling up and fundraising to develop innovative technologies and products. GFI India is on a mission to build a secure, sustainable, and just global food future.
This role gave me extensive exposure to working with diverse stakeholders and building a supportive ecosystem for innovative climate solutions in India.
How did you get your first break?
I was directed by one of my professors to apply for an opening at FTI Consulting as they were looking for professionals with good research, reasoning, and data management skills.
What were some of the challenges you faced? How did you address them?
Yet, while many of these solutions innovatively tackled pressing climate problems, they didn’t have a clear pathway for a just transition. This made me realise that when solutions, whether environmental or economic, are designed without the input of the local community they impact and are retrofitted to their needs, they often reinforce existing systemic challenges or create new ones. Without the unique opportunity of working as an ecosystem builder, I wouldn’t have learned these lessons this quickly into my career. To put these lessons to practice, I stepped away from GFI and found my current role where my work is grounded in the principles of finding localized data, assessing power dynamics in the conservation ecosystem, and reflecting on the linkages between my intentions and outcomes as a researcher.
Where do you work now? What problems do you solve?
I currently work as a Project Coordinator at GroundUp Conservation, where I am leading a research project to study locally-led conservation initiatives across South Asia and Myanmar. This project is supported by the University of Cambridge.
As I am leading this project end-to-end, this means I am responsible for the research design, managing the budget, conducting field visits to collect data, finding the right people to speak with, analyzing all the collected data, and communicating our findings effectively to the right audience. Our aim is that this research will fill a current gap in the literature around grassroots organizations that work at the intersection of biodiversity conservation and sustainable livelihood in South Asia, and will lay down a pathway for supporting such grassroots actors to lead conservation efforts on the ground.
What are the skills required for this role?
To do this job, a person ideally would need strong research skills (creating a research methodology, data collection tools like surveys, interview guides, etc), data management and analysis skills (tools like R, AtLAS ti+, Excel, etc.), experience of working with grassroots actors, and knowledge about climate finance, conservation action, environmental policy, among other skills.
How does your work benefit society?
One key outcome of this research is to design specific recommendations for donor agencies on how they can improve their funding process to support grassroots conservation leaders. This in turn helps create a positive outcome for all stakeholders involved in the conservation and protection of biodiversity.
Tell us an example of a specific memorable work you did that is very close to you!
My current research project – the Grassroots Pathways to Biodiversity Recovery. When I started the Grassroots Pathway to Biodiversity Recovery project, I didn’t anticipate that it would lead me to reflect on my family’s history as migrants from agricultural and coastal communities. Within two generations of my family migrating to a city for better economic opportunities, our culture shifted drastically. Instead of speaking my grandparents’ native tongue or playing in the local ponds and farms, I grew up in a concrete jungle that was overpopulated, polluted, and consumed with a homogenous idea of growth. While my exploration of environmental ethics helped me reconnect with my ecological heritage, many IPLC leaders I interviewed through the course of this research reported a similar loss of bio-cultural identity in their younger generations due to economic migration.
Your advice to students based on your experience?
I was often told that I would not get a job with a degree in philosophy and environmental studies. However, my degree doesn’t define the boundaries of skills I can learn and the knowledge I have. I could switch from one field to another because I don’t believe that my academic trajectory has to dictate my professional trajectory. While shifting fields is a time-taking endeavor with a steep learning curve, you shouldn’t believe that you are restricted to learning only in an academic environment.
Future Plans?
I am planning to pursue a Masters degree in environmental management next year to specialize in environmental economics and environmental data science tools.