Joshua Fisher: nurturing nature

The inaugural director of the University’s Nature Positive Hub learnt early that our livelihoods and well-being rise and fall alongside the health of our environment.

Utah’s semi-arid desert landscape was the backdrop to Joshua Fisher’s early life.
He grew up tending cattle, sheep and crops on his family’s ranch in Cornish, where the farming community depended on rainfall and a good winter snowpack (accumulated snow) for water.

In years when water was scarce, tensions “were very real”, says Joshua (Josh).
“People would argue over water for their crops and livestock, and I was particularly attuned to that as a young farmhand because irrigation was one of my responsibilities. Any time there was a shock to the system, like the canal failing or a prolonged drought, tensions would flare, and we’d have to find some way to resolve the conflicts.”

He didn’t realise it then, but those experiences would set him on a course for a career that has taken him from Mozambique to the Amazon, with roles as a wildfire fighter, river ranger, research scientist, independent consultant and Ivy League academic.

Now, he’s the inaugural director of the University’s Nature Positive Hub, shaping its strategic direction and impact.

The hub aims to foster and support a thriving community of scholars, scientists, iwi, businesses and policymakers to advance regenerative stewardship of Aotearoa New Zealand and the world.

Through a flagship research programme, doctoral students, postdocs, faculty members across disciplines, and community partners will explore how business, finance and public policy can move beyond reducing environmental harm to restore biodiversity and ecosystems. Their solutions also aim to support long-term social and economic well-being.

“My start on the farm helped me see the urgency and need for the nature positive initiative,” says Josh.

“Biodiversity loss and the disruption of ecosystems have real, tangible consequences for communities like the one I grew up in. Regenerating ecological integrity is crucial for enhancing resilience and for creating a world in which all inhabitants, human and otherwise, can thrive.

“For me, it’s very personal.”  

In 2027, the hub will welcome its first cohort of fully funded, nature-focused doctoral students. Their research will tackle pressing environmental and economic challenges, from regenerative forestry and the future of fisheries management to how communication shapes public trust, and what it would mean for Aotearoa New Zealand to treat nature as a form of shared sovereign wealth.

“When I think about the technological innovations needed to create a world in which all beings can thrive, when I think about the value chains that need to be linked for all beings to thrive, the growth potential in that is infinite. There’s so much space for a regenerative economy.

“There’s something both ambitious and pragmatic about the nature positive work at Waipapa Taumata Rau that I think is unique.

“The potential of the Nature Positive Hub to have real impact stands out among peer institutions that focus either on academic research or on practice. The hub will integrate across both.”

From the farm to fighting wildfires

Josh grew up in a small town of 200 people, but his parents encouraged a broader outlook. They invited international students from a nearby university to their farm to share stories of their home countries.

“We were able to enjoy a grounded farming experience, paired with a bigger worldview that was nurtured by my folks. It got me interested in trying to work on environmental management in an international setting, but there wasn’t a clear pathway for that from my hometown.”

There were, however, seasonal jobs in Utah that provided an entry point.
At 20, Josh joined the US Forest Service as a wildland firefighter and later became a backcountry river ranger with the US Bureau of Land Management.

Fighting wildfires in the western US taught him about the pressures facing communities in fire-prone landscapes, and the natural cycles of disruption and regeneration in ecosystems that depend on fire.

As a river ranger, he managed competing demands on shared natural resources, working with ranchers, fishers, recreational users, government agencies and Native American land managers.

“Throughout my formative years, I became committed to supporting communities to navigate environmental conflicts and develop collaborative solutions.”

Those commitments led him to pursue an undergraduate degree in international law and environmental policy at Utah State University, followed by graduate studies in international conflict resolution and environmental conflict.

After his masters, he worked as a land-use planner in conservation, restoration and the interagency management of public lands. He then completed his PhD at George Mason University before working for private-sector firms. 

In 2012, he joined Columbia University’s Earth Institute, first as a postdoctoral researcher and later becoming director of AC4, a research centre focused on conflict, peace and sustainable development.

“I’m a somewhat non-traditional academic in that I always wanted to do applied work rather than fundamental research and science,” he explains.

“I was lucky to spend the first decade-and-a-half of my academic career at the Earth Institute at Columbia University, which was explicitly focused on cross-university, solutions-oriented, interdisciplinary research. It was about using science to find solutions to fundamental social and environmental problems.”

Josh has carried that practical focus throughout his career, engaging in projects where his work and research can deliver value to the people facing the problems.

“I’ve always aspired to deep collaboration, treating the research environment as an ecosystem where each researcher, community organisation, policymaker and funder has their own niche to fill and function to serve. For me, being an academic is about finding my own niche within that ecosystem.”

New Zealand via Mozambique

Josh’s international career began with a stint in the Peace Corps in Mozambique, a country he has continued to work in almost every year since 2005.

It’s also where he met his New Plymouth-born partner, Natasha Anandaraja. Both were invited to contribute to a major national park restoration project, where he was working in social and environmental science, while she, a University of Auckland-trained doctor, was working in public health.

In Mozambique, Josh and Natasha examined the social and environmental benefits of conservation, building evidence on how collaborative environmental management can improve both community well-being and ecosystem health.

They’ve built that knowledge into their work ever since: Josh as a researcher and scientist, and Natasha, who founded a non-profit organisation, Women Together Global, focused on supporting women and communities to build environmentally responsible businesses.

Across his career, Josh has continued to collaborate with NGOs, conservation organisations and scientists, using applied research to inform conservation planning and resource management in some of the world’s most vital ecosystems.

This took him to Peru, where he supported forest conservation in the Amazon, and to the Altiplano in Argentina, where he studied hydrological connections among aquifers in areas of lithium extraction. Lithium is essential to the shift away from fossil fuels and a key component of EV batteries; the question, Josh says, is how to obtain it without undermining the water systems communities depend on.

He has taken similar approaches elsewhere, conducting human rights and environmental impact assessments of Papua New Guinea gold mines, supporting social and environmental transitions in the Basque Country, and studying sustainable watershed management in Japan.

His emphasis on relationships has shaped his work and the opportunities that have come his way.

Connecting with the Kiwi community in New York made the move to Aotearoa possible, he says, having learned about New Zealand’s nature positive initiative at a Flat White Meet-up of New Zealand expats. He later connected with the University of Auckland through that network.

“I’ve always tried to do work that’s interesting, has real potential for impact and the right enabling ecosystem. The plans for the Nature Positive Hub just checked all those boxes.  

“What stood out to me about the hub’s philosophy was its recognition that we live in systems that have been disrupted, but that there is opportunity for regeneration.

“It takes me back to my firefighting experience and those cycles of stability, disruption and regeneration. There’s something really special about working within a philosophy that recognises those cycles and sees the potential for renewal.”  

Josh’s appreciation for nature’s cycles extends beyond his professional life. Outside of work, he’s drawn, unsurprisingly, to activities that take him outdoors.

He grew up rock climbing in Utah’s mountains; running has been a constant, and he also swims and surfs (badly, he says). He’s drawn to the sense of flow these activities bring: their rhythms of exertion, recovery and renewal.

– Sophie Boladeras