Ditro Wibisono Wardi Parikesit and Douglas Sheil
Ditro Wibisono Wardi Parikesit is an ecologist, forester, and conservation practitioner with interdisciplinary interests spanning biodiversity conservation, forest ecology, community engagement, and sustainable nature-based enterprises. His work focuses on understanding the relationships between forests, biodiversity, and human well-being, with particular experience in tropical ecosystems across Indonesia.
Ditro holds a BSc in Forestry from IPB University and an MSc in Forest and Nature Conservation from Wageningen University, where he specialised in wildlife ecology, conservation, and indigenous forest management. His research has explored topics ranging from the cultural and spiritual values of forests and Indigenous land stewardship to species conservation, habitat selection, and biodiversity monitoring.
Beyond academia, he has worked across conservation NGOs, government institutions, social enterprises, and community-based initiatives, leading projects in ecological restoration, climate adaptation, environmental education, and sustainable livelihood development. He has also contributed to the development of nature-based businesses and community enterprises that support both conservation and local well-being. His broader goal is to advance inclusive conservation approaches that integrate ecological science, local knowledge, and sustainable development.
Douglas Sheil is an ecologist, forester and conservationist. He has broad multidisciplinary interests focused on forests, their biota and the people who depend on them. Most of his research has focused on the tropics.
Douglas trained in Natural Sciences (MA, Cambridge) and Forestry (MSc, Oxford) in the UK. After two years in East Africa (IUCN, based in Nairobi, Kenya), he conducted his doctoral research on long-term forest change in Uganda, while employed by the University of Oxford. His postdoctoral experience includes ten years in Indonesia with the Centre for International Forest Research and four years as director of the Institute for Tropical Forest Conservation in the Bwindi Impenetrable National Park, Uganda. He also spent a year in Southern Cross University in New South Wales, Australia, before joining WUR I was a professor at the Norwegian University of Life Sciences (NMBU) in Ås, Norway. He remains a Senior Associate with CIFOR, in Indonesia.
