About Ficus
Data-driven. Rigorous. Interdisciplinary.
Leveraging diverse field-based and remotely-sensed social and ecological data, we produce rigorous, context-specific analyses supporting institutions and organizations to make data-driven decisions and design effective interventions.
Why we exist
Interdisciplinary approaches for more nuanced research findings.
Social, ecological, economic, satellite data amongst other data sources are often looked at in isolation. Using singular lenses to analyse a problem have led to incomplete conclusions, with potentially mis-guided actions with unintended consequences. Ficus Research Consulting was created to fill the gap of the lack of an interdisciplinary lens to impact evaluations and research questions.
At Ficus, we have decades of field experience and the highest levels of academic training to ensure that our research goes beyond a cursory understanding of a problem or a simple species checklist. We believe that it is only then that we can have a complete and in-depth understanding of a landscape, allowing for timely, data-driven decisions.
The founder
The space between academia and practice.
There's a version of environmental research that lives inside universities. Rigorous, in-depth, peer-reviewed, but often, devoid of the messiness of the real world data. On the other hand, the consulting world is often thinner on scrutiny, based on accelerated processes, whether is data collection or analyses.
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Pooja, has spent over a decade in academia, having worked on social-ecological research based in India, Belize, Costa Rica, and globally. She has published >20 articles in high-impact international peer reviewed journals, which has been covered by new outlets such as The Guardian, Indian Express amongst others. She has written about scientific research in several media outlets, making research findings more accessible to a wide audience.
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She founded Ficus Research Consulting to bring academic rigour and best practices to research in real world of implementing restoration and conservation initiatives. Through Ficus, she aims to help organisations, especially non-profits and social enterprises, adopt a systematic and evidence-based approach to their implementation and monitoring efforts.
The name
One tree,
many trunks.
The genus Ficus consists of over 500 species. The banyan, among the most familiar of Ficus species, send down aerial roots that thicken into new trunks, looking like a grove.
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We call ourselves Ficus to invoke the image of a sprawling Banyan tree, which, while from the above appears to be one large canopy, consists of a maze of branches and roots. Similarly, several ecological patterns observed in a landscape are created by a maze of interconnected social, ecological, economic drivers. Our research aims to disentangle this maze, and provide robust evidence to support decision making in the world of ecological restoration and conservation.
The team
A collective of diverse expertise
Ecologists, remote sensing scientists, statisticians, and social scientists who share a love for a good research question.
Dhwani Lalai
Research Associate
Dhwani Lalai is examining forest restoration over time through the lens of local governance, gender and human wellbeing in Himachal Pradesh, India. Drawing on qualitative methods and an ethnographic approach, she explores how ecological change intersects with everyday lived experiences, shaped by diverse values, meanings and visions of restoration. Dhwani Lalai is also currently a PhD researcher at the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences (SLU). Prior to her doctoral studies she has worked with the Foundation for Ecological Society (FES) in central India, leading the implementation of projects focused on ecological restoration, sustainable livelihoods and women’s leadership.
Sarika Khanwilkar
Collaborator
Dr. Sarika Khanwilkar is an ecologist, conservation scientist, and science communicator with 12 years of experience in central India on human–wildlife issues. She holds a PhD in Ecology and Evolution from Columbia University and works with NGOs, social enterprises, researchers, and environmental news platforms on projects spanning research, technology, knowledge exchange, and storytelling. Through these collaborations, she seeks to advance evidence-based conservation and help create a future where people and wildlife prosper together.