Raza Kazmi

Jharkhand & Uttarakhand

Project:
Enabling forest guards and indigeneous communities to emerge as environmental historians, conservation experts and storytellers.

Biography Raza is enabling forest communities and forest guards across Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh, and Uttarakhand to emerge as conservation experts, oral historians, and leaders of local solutions for conserving the forest belt of Central and East India.

An independent conservationist, author, and forest historian, Raza has worked in forest tracks affected by armed left-wing insurgency for over ten years. He has integrated innovative system-thinking capacity-building programs into the state governments’ training curricula. Through these trainings, he builds new perspectives, skills, and leadership among key stakeholders in the forest management ecosystem- including 850 forest guards, 150 forest rangers, and hundreds of Adivasi community leaders.

Raza remains steadfast in his belief that India’s forest histories will remain incomplete until forest communities are recognized as storytellers and knowledge bearers of forest systems. He trains forest guards and community members in storytelling, narrative building, and media engagement so that they can tell their stories and share their histories and lived experiences in their own words. Raza hopes to publish a first-of-its-kind anthology of writings by forest guards in India.

“What struck me the most about the ORA India vetting process was that for the first time I sat down, wrote and analysed all the work, especially beyond my public writing, that I had undertaken over the years, as well as the kind of things I wanted to do going forward. This was a great journey of self-reflection and learning. As an ORA Fellow, I look forward to learning from my peers while also widening the horizon of my work.”

Follow along with Raza:
Instagram: @raza.kazmi174