Visiting Scholars

Headshot of Khalil Walji

Khalil Walji

  • Visiting Scholar, Abdul Latif Jameel Water and Food Systems Lab
  • Landscape Restoration Scientist | Certified Ecological Restoration Practitioner

Khalil Walji is a global practitioner-scholar working at the intersection of ecosystem restoration, integrated landscape management, and sustainable food systems across the Global South. From 2021–2026, he is serving as Deputy Coordinator of the EU-funded Landscapes For Our Future (LFF) programme at CIFOR-ICRAF, advancing integrated landscape approaches through multi-stakeholder engagement, adaptive governance, and learning-oriented practice. Trained as a soil scientist with an interdisciplinary background, his work focuses on translating systems-level theory into practice in complex landscapes where food security, biodiversity, and livelihoods intersect.

A core strand of his work supports countries in moving from global biodiversity commitments to implementation, monitoring, and learning for ecosystem restoration under Target 2 of the Kunming–Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework. He currently serves as principal investigator of the Global Biodiversity Framework Target 2 Pilots and leads the Working Group on National and Regional Capacity Building, working closely with national CBD focal points, technical institutions, and the CBD Secretariat. His research examines investment feasibility in restoration landscapes, adoption dynamics and barriers to restoration practices, and the enabling conditions required to scale restoration outcomes.

Walji has played a leadership role under the UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration, including contributing to the global Task Force on Monitoring and shaping guidance on monitoring, evaluation, and learning for large-scale restoration. His applied research and publications address smallholder adoption of restoration practices, integrated landscape approaches, and social learning in forest and landscape education. He is also an award-winning education case developer supported by the University of British Columbia’s Teaching and Learning Enhancement Fund. 

At MIT J-WAFS, Walji's visiting scholarship focuses on regenerative and integrated landscape approaches, learning-oriented development, and innovative governance for restoration across food, water, and biodiversity systems, including applied work in Kenya’s Nzoia River Basin through the Nzoia Integrated Food-Water Action (NIFA) Platform.