Dr. Waseem Razzaq Khan has been a student of Forestry for almost 15 years. He started his research career in the sub-tropical forests of Pakistan in the domain of medicinal plants and REDD+. In 2020, he obtained his PhD degree from Universiti Putra Malaysia, where he worked on Mangrove communities in Matang Mangrove Forest Reserve (MMFR) funded by the Malaysian Government.

What fascinates him, is the survival strategy of these tree communities against the saline coastal tides. One can visually experience the unpredictability and rapidly changing behavior of the forests, depicting a truly alive organism. This was the very first observation that drew his attention on his very first field visit. Mangroves and other blue-carbon ecosystems share the characteristic of storing carbon in huge amounts. What makes this characteristic so relevant today is the increased carbon emissions in the atmosphere. Destruction of these ecosystems is turning them from carbon sink to a carbon source. He got an opportunity to continue his research work in mangrove ecosystems in the form of postdoctoral fellow at the same university. Currently, he is working as a senior lecturer in Universiti Putra Malaysia Bintulu campus (Borneo region). He published his research work in international peer-reviewed journals. He is serving as an editor of the Malaysian Forester Journal and at the same time guest editor for a special issue “Biodiversity, Health, and Ecosystem Services of Mangroves” in MDPI Forests.