I'm Liane, and I have recently joined WildTeam as a WildLearning Training Specialist.
For the last few years, I've been working in Seychelles, focusing on island and marine conservation efforts, particularly coral restoration and turtle nesting monitoring. If you ask me questions about coral, be prepared for me to get very nerdy about it! Prior to that, I was managing a project in Northern Thailand, where I worked closely with a local community to set up ethical elephant experiences in their village.
In my free time, I love running and hiking, and being anywhere in nature. I have also learnt to freedive in the last few years and enjoy doing that when possible. I'm really interested in talking to different people and learning from them and their unique experiences.
Feel free to connect with me on LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/liane-fulford-48008b268 or pop me a message on here to chat more.
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A warm welcome to WildHub, Liane and great to have you on our team! Impressive that you learned to freedive!
Based on your work experience in Northern Thailand where you worked with a local community to set up ethical elephant experiences in their village, perhaps you could connect with @David Jay who is the Network Manager for the Animal Protection Network (APN) of on-the-ground conservation projects. David recently shared to be interested in finding more ethical projects/orgs to join this network set up by Animondial, a travel consultancy advising on Nature Positive tourism and other aspects of animal and nature protection in the travel industry.
Thanks for the nudge ...
Hi Liane - it's good to hear from you. I work particularly at the interface of tourism and conservation / animal welfare. I'd certainly be interested to hear more about the elephant facility that you were working at, as I know a couple of places in that area but would be keen to hear about more. If you were working for a specific organisation in the Seychelles I'd be interested to hear about that too.
Hi David, good to hear from you! Your work sounds interesting.
Which elephant projects do you know of? I worked at GVI's elephant reintegration project which is near the town of Mae Chaem, in a village called Huay Pakoot. We had around 8 elephants ('owned' by community members) on the project that lived in the forests around, that had previously been in tourism camps, and we would take volunteers out to see them. Volunteers would stay in local homestays whilst on-project and do some cultural activities as well. There was a village next to us with another organisation - Kindred Spirits - which had a similar set up.
In Seychelles, I worked with Fregate Island Foundation on the Conservation team, and after that with WiseOceans based in the Four Seasons Resort.
I can put you in touch with any of these organisations if you would like?
Feel free to ask anything else!
Hi Liane,
Ah, so, Kindred Spirit is already a member of our Animal Protection Network. I knew there were a few similar ones around there but I hadn't come across the GVI project. We are also in contact with MEF, which I think originated that model.
It sounds like you have been working quite a bit within the tourism/conservation interface, which where my work focuses as well. Do check out www.animondial.com if you want to find out more about that, and drop me a line if you want to know more.
Good luck your new role, it sound very interesting and very valuable.
Welcome Liane