William R. Burch
Frederick C. Hixon Professor of Natural Resource Management and Professor at the Institution for Social and Policy Studies
Biographical Sketch
A native of Oregon William R. Burch has BSc, Msc degrees from the University of Oregon and PhD (1964) from the University of Minnesota, and MA (hon) Yale University (1976). He has taught at University of Minnesota, University of Missouri, Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand, Syracuse University, Yale University, Kasetsart University of Bangkok, Thailand; Institute of Forestry, Tribhuvan University, Pokhara, Nepal; School of Economics and Management, Beijing Forestry University, China.
He has had social science research or management appointments with the US Forest Service, US National Park Service, Connecticut Department of Environmental Protection, and USAID. He was the first Director of the Yale Tropical Resources Institute and the first Director of the Yale Urban Resources Initiative and continues as faculty director. He served on the Board of Directors, Paul Smiths College of the Adirondacks, New York (2000-2003). He has worked on institution development and natural resource social science projects in a variety of countries–PR China, Nepal, Bhutan, Thailand, Costa Rica, Argentina, Bolivia, Paraguay, India, Bangladesh, Philippines and Peru.
He was Director of the Institute of Forestry Project, USAID/Nepal, an $8mil, long term project (1989–1997). He was consultant or grantee for a number of USAID, Ford Foundation, MacArthur, FAO, Tinker, WWF projects in Asia and Latin America. He was awarded the John Eadie Fellowship by the Scottish Forestry Trust to advise British Forestry on community based forestry research and training needs (2000-2002). He is a lecturer for and advisor to the Sino Forestry–Leadership Program and the Sustainable Development Leadership Program in China (1999-present). He has an appointment as Adjunct Professor in the School of Economics and Management of Beijing Forestry University (October-2001-present).
He has been an advisor to UNEP on making data reporting more useful for environmental policy, planning and management (2000-present), presentations at UNEP science meetings in Boston (Sept, 2000), Paris (Feb, 2002) and Prague, (June 2002); published report August 2002. Most recently (April 20, 2003) he and Dr. Gary Machlis presented at a conference organized by the United Nations University, Tokyo, the Human Ecosystem Framework as a problem solving tool to a group of urban managers, mayors and city planners in South and Southeast Asia. Follow-up meetings were held at the East-West Center in Honolulu, October 2003. He was team leader for a mid-term evaluation of a USAID funded, NTFP-Community Forestry enterprise project being carried out by ANSAB. Other team members were Dr. Keshav Kanel, Deputy Director of Department of Forests, Nepal and Prof. S. P. Singh, Head of Dept. of Botany, Kumaon University, India. Report completed 1 July 2003. On 12 December 2003 he helped organize the field trips and training and presented the Canon National Parks Science Scholars Lecture at Vieques, Puerto Rico. This was a gathering of 20 doctoral students mostly in the biophysical sciences from Latin America and North America. These students were selected by the American Association for the Advancement of Science from a large range of applications.
In March 2004 he was the outside expert for a nationwide gathering of community forestry workers held by ECOS at Bagan, Burma (Myanmar). In May 2004 he was one of five outside experts advising on the creation of a School of Forestry and Environmental Studies and the development of the Royal University of Bhutan. In June he was a lecturer at the Yale-Tsinghua Environment and Sustainable Development Leadership Program for mayors and managers of urban environments in Beijing, PRC. He also gave a series of three lectures and one discussion seminar on “Ecological Economics and Management” at Beijing Forestry University. In September, 2004 he was in Taiwan as a lecturer/consultant giving three lectures there, advising on community forestry program for Orchid Island and giving a keynote speech at a nationwide conference on ecosystem management and environmental policy at the Graduate Institute of Environmental Policy, National Dong Hwa University, Shou Feng, Hualien. In 2005, he and Bhishma Subedi, ANSAB, Tom Hammett, Virginia Tech, Mike Rechllin, Princippia, received a $50,000 planning grant to develop research measuring the impact of community based resource systems for Nepal, Thailand, Sri Lanka, Philippines.
He has authored or co-authored, edited or co-edited 14 books on community development, natural resources and the environment. His first book, Daydreams and Nightmares (Harper & Row, 1971), was republished by Social Ecology Press in 1998. He has authored or co-authored over 100 peer reviewed journal articles and chapters on community-natural resource issues. His most recent book, Ecosystem Management (Taylor and Francis, 1999) was edited with two former students Jenny Aley and Beth Conover along with Don Field. Recent articles are: Rechlin, Hammett, Burch and Song, 2002, Sharing the Wealth: a comparative study of the distribution of benefits from community forestry management in Southern China and Nepal. Journal of Sustainable Development. 15:1-23. Burch 2002. Challenges and possible futures for the forestry profession in a global post-industrial social ecology–lessons from Britain. Scottish Forestry. 56:145-158. Burch, Leadership for sustainable development–lessons from Tao to Mao. Journal of Sustainable Forestry, Song, Wang, Burch and Rechlin,2004. “>From innovation to adaptation: lessons from 20 years of the SHIFT forest management system in Sanming, China”, Forest Ecology and Management , 191:225-238. Grove, Burch and S.T.A.Pickett, Social Mosaics and Urban Community Forestry in Baltimore, Maryland, in Lee and Field,Communities and Forests–Where People Meet the Land, 2005. Oregon State University Press.
He is a co-PI with the Baltimore/Chesapeake NSF-LTER which is one of the two human dominated ecosystem sites for long term research efforts (out of the total of 25 in the USA). He was PI of the Fairmount Park five-year (1998-2002) restoration monitoring and evaluation project covering five stream valley park systems in Philadelphia PA. He has been involved in community based urban ecology, urban forestry and natural resource research, planning and management since the 1960s in New Zealand, North America and Britain. He helped to organize the first US Forest Service national conference on “Cities, Children and Natural Resources,” 1974.
He has had social science research or management appointments with the US Forest Service, US National Park Service, Connecticut Department of Environmental Protection, and USAID. He was the first Director of the Yale Tropical Resources Institute and the first Director of the Yale Urban Resources Initiative and continues as faculty director. He served on the Board of Directors, Paul Smiths College of the Adirondacks, New York (2000-2003). He has worked on institution development and natural resource social science projects in a variety of countries–PR China, Nepal, Bhutan, Thailand, Costa Rica, Argentina, Bolivia, Paraguay, India, Bangladesh, Philippines and Peru.
He was Director of the Institute of Forestry Project, USAID/Nepal, an $8mil, long term project (1989–1997). He was consultant or grantee for a number of USAID, Ford Foundation, MacArthur, FAO, Tinker, WWF projects in Asia and Latin America. He was awarded the John Eadie Fellowship by the Scottish Forestry Trust to advise British Forestry on community based forestry research and training needs (2000-2002). He is a lecturer for and advisor to the Sino Forestry–Leadership Program and the Sustainable Development Leadership Program in China (1999-present). He has an appointment as Adjunct Professor in the School of Economics and Management of Beijing Forestry University (October-2001-present).
He has been an advisor to UNEP on making data reporting more useful for environmental policy, planning and management (2000-present), presentations at UNEP science meetings in Boston (Sept, 2000), Paris (Feb, 2002) and Prague, (June 2002); published report August 2002. Most recently (April 20, 2003) he and Dr. Gary Machlis presented at a conference organized by the United Nations University, Tokyo, the Human Ecosystem Framework as a problem solving tool to a group of urban managers, mayors and city planners in South and Southeast Asia. Follow-up meetings were held at the East-West Center in Honolulu, October 2003. He was team leader for a mid-term evaluation of a USAID funded, NTFP-Community Forestry enterprise project being carried out by ANSAB. Other team members were Dr. Keshav Kanel, Deputy Director of Department of Forests, Nepal and Prof. S. P. Singh, Head of Dept. of Botany, Kumaon University, India. Report completed 1 July 2003. On 12 December 2003 he helped organize the field trips and training and presented the Canon National Parks Science Scholars Lecture at Vieques, Puerto Rico. This was a gathering of 20 doctoral students mostly in the biophysical sciences from Latin America and North America. These students were selected by the American Association for the Advancement of Science from a large range of applications.
In March 2004 he was the outside expert for a nationwide gathering of community forestry workers held by ECOS at Bagan, Burma (Myanmar). In May 2004 he was one of five outside experts advising on the creation of a School of Forestry and Environmental Studies and the development of the Royal University of Bhutan. In June he was a lecturer at the Yale-Tsinghua Environment and Sustainable Development Leadership Program for mayors and managers of urban environments in Beijing, PRC. He also gave a series of three lectures and one discussion seminar on “Ecological Economics and Management” at Beijing Forestry University. In September, 2004 he was in Taiwan as a lecturer/consultant giving three lectures there, advising on community forestry program for Orchid Island and giving a keynote speech at a nationwide conference on ecosystem management and environmental policy at the Graduate Institute of Environmental Policy, National Dong Hwa University, Shou Feng, Hualien. In 2005, he and Bhishma Subedi, ANSAB, Tom Hammett, Virginia Tech, Mike Rechllin, Princippia, received a $50,000 planning grant to develop research measuring the impact of community based resource systems for Nepal, Thailand, Sri Lanka, Philippines.
He has authored or co-authored, edited or co-edited 14 books on community development, natural resources and the environment. His first book, Daydreams and Nightmares (Harper & Row, 1971), was republished by Social Ecology Press in 1998. He has authored or co-authored over 100 peer reviewed journal articles and chapters on community-natural resource issues. His most recent book, Ecosystem Management (Taylor and Francis, 1999) was edited with two former students Jenny Aley and Beth Conover along with Don Field. Recent articles are: Rechlin, Hammett, Burch and Song, 2002, Sharing the Wealth: a comparative study of the distribution of benefits from community forestry management in Southern China and Nepal. Journal of Sustainable Development. 15:1-23. Burch 2002. Challenges and possible futures for the forestry profession in a global post-industrial social ecology–lessons from Britain. Scottish Forestry. 56:145-158. Burch, Leadership for sustainable development–lessons from Tao to Mao. Journal of Sustainable Forestry, Song, Wang, Burch and Rechlin,2004. “>From innovation to adaptation: lessons from 20 years of the SHIFT forest management system in Sanming, China”, Forest Ecology and Management , 191:225-238. Grove, Burch and S.T.A.Pickett, Social Mosaics and Urban Community Forestry in Baltimore, Maryland, in Lee and Field,Communities and Forests–Where People Meet the Land, 2005. Oregon State University Press.
He is a co-PI with the Baltimore/Chesapeake NSF-LTER which is one of the two human dominated ecosystem sites for long term research efforts (out of the total of 25 in the USA). He was PI of the Fairmount Park five-year (1998-2002) restoration monitoring and evaluation project covering five stream valley park systems in Philadelphia PA. He has been involved in community based urban ecology, urban forestry and natural resource research, planning and management since the 1960s in New Zealand, North America and Britain. He helped to organize the first US Forest Service national conference on “Cities, Children and Natural Resources,” 1974.
