Sandesh Shrestha is a Senior Forester and Geospatial Specialist with Aster Global Environmental Solutions, Inc. In this role, Mr. Shrestha serves as an audit team member providing technical review support for Agriculture, Forestry, and Other Land Use (AFOLU) projects with a specialization in forestry under a variety of standards and frameworks, including Verified Carbon Standard (VCS), Architecture for REDD+ Transactions – The REDD+ Environmental Excellence Standard (ART TREES), Forest Carbon Partnership Facility (FCPF) Methodological Framework, Plan Vivo Standard, American Carbon Registry (ACR) Methodology and California Air Resources Board (ARB) Forest Protocol. At Aster Global, Mr. Shrestha is responsible for conducting Validation and Verification of forest carbon projects at project and jurisdictional scales, including REDD+, ARR and IFM activities. His work includes desktop analyses and site visits, integrating remote sensing, GIS and forest inventory analyses to assess forest cover, biomass, and carbon stocks, and land-use land-cover (LULC) change. He has been responsible for large-scale data processing and auditing to confirm project’s Monitoring, Reporting and Verification (MRV) system, ensuring data accuracy, methodological compliance, and adherence to carbon accounting standards. As part of site visit responsibilities, he has led field evaluations across Asia, South America, and Central America, conducting on-the-ground forest assessments, verifying project activities, and supporting Validation and Verification under FCPF, ART TREES and VCS frameworks.
Mr. Shrestha brings a wealth of previous experience to this role and has worked in the areas of forest inventory, LULC change monitoring, climate change and mitigation, habitat monitoring, conservation area management, community forestry management, applied research and geospatial modeling. Prior to joining the Aster Global team, he worked as a Geospatial Research Associate with Kentucky State University where he focused on the acquisition, compilation, and processing of geospatial data using satellite imagery, LiDAR, and UAV drones for ecosystem assessments, LULC change, and watershed modelling. He also worked with SeedTree as a data analyst studying forest cover changes and evaluating tree nursery and plantation programs in Nepal using Landsat, MODIS imagery. Mr. Shrestha worked as Research Assistant at University of Maine, mapping forest health in Northeastern U.S. using Sentinel and Landsat data. Mr. Shrestha worked as a Research Assistant at Project 111 where he conducted extensive forest inventory of 111 community forests of Nepal and social survey with community forest user groups. He also has experience working as a Conservationist at Annapurna Conservation Area Project (ACAP) in Nepal, supporting community-based conservation and climate change adaptation planning and implementation. Mr. Shrestha is a published author of numerous research projects in the United States and Nepal related to LULC change, hydrology, climate change impact, community perception and vulnerability studies.
Education:
Master of Science – Forest Resources
University of Maine
Bachelor of Science – Forestry
Institute of Forestry, Tribhuvan University, Nepal
Years of Experience: 10
Professional Affiliations:
Certifications:
Contact: sshrestha@AsterGlobal.com
