Usman Ashraf, PhD candidate at the College of Humanities and Development Studies, Chine Agriculture University.

Usman is primarily interested in political ecology of conservation, climate change and state-society relationship. He is currently working on politics of environmental governance and development in China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) or broadly The Belt and Road Initiative (BRI).

Usman received his undergraduate (2011) in Environmental Sciences from the University of the Punjab and his Master’s degree in development studies majoring in Agrarian, Food and Environmental Studies from the Institute of Social Studies (ISS), The Hague. His Master’s research was focused on the network nature of interaction between state and timber mafia resulting in blurred boundaries of ‘the public’ and ‘the private’. His research has appeared in many academic journals including Ecologia Politica, Economic and Political weekly. He also writes opinion pieces for one of the leading English newspaper in Pakistan. He has worked as teaching and research assistant in ISS, The Hague and Lahore School of Economics.