Dr John Studley has extensive knowledge of High Asia, and of its mountain forests and its indigenous peoples. He has worked in the Himalaya-Hengduan mountain range since the early 1980′s and mastered Nepalese, Jumli (a Nepalese dialect) and a little Tibetan & Chinese (Mandarin) For 5 years he was responsible for a very successful (SIDA funded) community forestry programs in one of the most remote parts of the world, in a hidden valley between the Himalaya and the Tibetan Plateau. The program included forestry research, conservation, curriculum development, forestry education & training, and community forestry.John has extensive experience of China, having visited 11 provinces and lived in Sichuan Province for 3 years. He speaks and writes basic Tibetan and rudimentary Mandarin and understands both Chinese and Tibetan world views and many customs. He has travelled to many areas of SW China “closed” to Westerners. During 3 years in China he participated in :- an interdisciplinary assessment of Hongyuan County, forest hydrological research with CAS on Gongga Shan), an international natural resource feasibility study of Dengke County (1994) , a forestry baseline study of Dengke County (1995), and led two relief expeditions to the snow stricken nomads of Shiqu County (1996) . He was one of the few foreigners that were granted permission to access and supervise aid distribution on the ground. John has a keen sense of enquiry and an ability to generate research hypotheses. He is able to; pursue both individual & collective initiatives for both long and short periods. He is able to synthesize materials well from different sources, interpret data, articulate ideas fluently and meet deadlines even in the most difficult of circumstances. His reports demonstrate clear precise reasoning, an aptitude for investigation, a clear understanding of the: study area, details of socio-environmental impacts, methodologies of surveying, and focused operationalrecommendations.