Vaibhav Panda is a development professional with more than 27 years of experience. He has worked extensively in the fields of natural resource management, rural local self-governance, and rural livelihoods. Vaibhav has managed numerous implementation and research programmes in states across eastern and central India. For the last decade, he has also been involved with policymaking. His work has been published widely— this includes a monograph published by the Centre for Economic and Social Studies, Hyderabad, on identifying livelihood opportunities for forest dwellers in the Northeast.