Contact Information
pnayak@uwaterloo.ca
EV3 4231
Personal Pages
@PrateepNayak
LinkedIn
Prateep is a Professor in the School of Environment, Enterprise and Development, Faculty of Environment, University of Waterloo, Canada. He is also the Project Director of the Vulnerability to Viability (V2V) Global Partnership for building strong small-scale fisheries communities. Prateep’s academic background is in political science, environmental studies and international development. He does interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary work with an active interest in combining social and ecological perspectives. Prateep’s research focuses on the understanding of complex human-environment connections (or disconnections) with particular attention to change, its drivers, their influence and possible ways to deal with them. His main areas of expertise and interest include commons, governance, social-ecological system resilience, wellbeing, environmental justice and political ecology. Prateep has published over 78 refereed papers and book chapters, and over 309 policy, research, review, and technical contributions, including as invited and keynote speaker. He is recognised as a science leader and advocate in the global science-policy-practice forum and have been invited on numerous occasions to serve on international policy, advisory, advocacy and research committees pertaining to biodiversity, climate, development, and conservation.
In the past, Prateep worked as a development professional in South-Asia on issues around community-based governance of land, water and forests, focusing specifically at the interface of research, implementation and public policy. Prateep has several awards and recognitions as a recipient of Canada’s Governor General Academic Gold Medal, Harvard Fellow in Sustainability Science, Trudeau Scholar, and SSHRC Banting Fellow, among others.
Courses Taught
- INDEV 100: Introduction to International Development: Concepts, Theories and Actors
- INDEV 101: Introduction to International Development: Issues, Challenges and Approaches
- SFM 201: Social Sustainability
- SUSM 678: Governing the Commons
- INDEV 617: Environmental Change and Governance (Field Course – Chilika Lagoon, Bay of Bengal, India)
- SUSM 601 (Foundations for Sustainability Management)
Selected Publications
Books
1. Nayak. P. K. (Editor). 2021. Making Commons Dynamic: Understanding Change through Commonisation and Decommonisation. London: Routledge. Pp. 384. https://doi.org/10.4324/9780429028632
2. Das, B. K., DebRoy, P., Nayak, P. K. (Editors). 2026. Small-scale Inland Fisheries in India. Singapore: Springer. Pp. 294. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-95-3849-2
Journal Article and Book Chapters
3. Robinson, C, Hobday, A. J., Murphy, E. J., Nayak, P. K. and Newton, A. 2025. Editorial: Integrated marine biosphere research: Ocean sustainability, under global change, for the benefit of society. Frontiers in Marine Science 12:1684348. https://doi.org/10.3389/fmars.2025.1684348
4. Prado, D., Armitage, D., Nayak, P. K., Arriagada, N., Castillo, T., de la Lama, R. C., Trimble, M., Epstein, G. 2025. Threats and prospects for the viability of small-scale fishing communities in Latin America: A systematic review of conflicts and blue injustices. Ocean and Coastal Management 271: 107934. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ocecoaman.2025.107934
5. Hossain, M. M., Nayak P. K., Alam, T. M., Shamsuzzaman, M. M., Iqbal, M. M. and Islam, M. M. 2025. Navigating Vulnerabilities and Responses for Transitioning to Viability in the Small-Scale Fisheries of Bangladesh. Reviews in Fisheries Science & Aquaculture. https://doi.org/10.1080/23308249.2025.2518168
6. Nayak, P. K., Pradhan, S. K. 2023. Interdisciplinary perspectives on social-ecological wellbeing. In: S. Chettri, T. Dutta, M. Mondal, P. Patnaik, (Eds.). Handbook of Happiness: Reflections and Praxis from around the World. Springer Nature Singapore. Pp. 205 – 219. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-99-2637-4_10
7. Dias, A. C. E., Armitage, D., Nayak, P. K., et al. 2023. From vulnerability to viability: A situational analysis of small-scale fisheries in Asia and Africa. Marine Policy 155: 105731. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.marpol.2023.105731
8. Nayak, P. K. 2022. Making Sense of Multidimensional Injustice for Creating Viable Small-Scale Fisheries in Chilika Lagoon, Bay of Bengal. In: S. Jentoft, R. Chuenpagdee, A. B. Said, M Isaacs
(Editors). Blue Justice: Small-Scale Fisheries in a Sustainable Ocean Economy. Springer, Netherlands. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-89624-9_11
9. Nayak, P.K. and Berkes, F. 2022. Evolutionary Perspectives on the Commons: A Model of Commonisation and Decommonisation. Sustainability 14: 4300. https://doi.org/10.3390/su14074300
10. Nayak, P. K., Armitage, D. 2018. Social-ecological regime shifts (SERS) in coastal systems. 2018. Ocean and Coastal Management 161: 84 -95. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ocecoaman.2018.04.020
Degrees
- PhD - Natural Resources and Environmental Management, University of Manitoba, Canada
- M.A. - Natural Resource Management, University of Manitoba, Canada
- Certificate in Higher Education Teaching (CHET) - University of Manitoba, Canada
- M.A. - Rural Development, Xavier Institute of Social Service, India
- B.A. (Honours) - Political Science, Sambalpur University, India