My background is mainly in species conservation, education and capacity exchange. I researched mother-young interactions in gorillas and chimpanzees, in captivity and the wild. After that, I worked for three years in Indonesia, where I developed and implemented youth ambassador and community engagement programmes on local and regional scales. I co-founded WildHub, a community of nature conservation professionals, in 2020 and work as their Community Lead. I am furthermore on the Advisory Board of the Durrell Institute of Conservation and Ecology (DICE) at the University of Kent where I obtained my PhD on capacity development for conservation in 2022.
Dreamer and adventurer for primate conservation
I completed the MSc Primate Conservation at Oxford Brookes University in 2019 during which I had the chance to study a group of capuchins in rehabilitation at ONCA Wildlife Rescue. I then went to Ikamaperu where I was in charge of the rehabilitation process of the orphan woolly monkeys as well as of the communication of the centre on social media. 🙈
In 2018, I created Primate Odyssey a project to share my adventure around the world to raise awareness about primate conservation and inspire people to act for conservation. Embark on my adventures with me by following me on YouTube, Instagram and Facebook! 🌏
Louisa Richmond-Coggan
Founder & Conservation Consultant, LRC Wildlife Conservation Consulting
Is your organisation's technology decision-making as structured as it needs to be? Conservation organisations face real pressure to adopt technology, often without a clear process for assessing whether it fits their context, capacity, and conservation goals.
The free Conservation Technology Decision Quiz takes five minutes. It scores your approach across three areas: Decision Clarity, Fit and Feasibility, and Delivery and Performance. Results include practical recommendations matched to your score, so you can see where your decision process is strong and what to address first. Start here: Technology Decision Quiz
I work with conservation organisations and funders on structured technology decision-making, the process that determines whether adoption actually works. Twenty-five years in conservation across the Global South. Technology-agnostic, no vendor affiliations.
If your team is navigating a technology decision, evaluating a pilot, or funding organisations that are, I'd welcome a conversation.
BACKGROUND
Dr. Louisa Richmond-Coggan. My career spans field-based ecology, international NGO and policy work, academic leadership, and conservation technology decision-making.
Field career: large carnivore ecology and human-wildlife coexistence research across Eastern and Southern Africa, including as Head of Ecology at the Cheetah Conservation Fund in Namibia. I led Namibia's National Leopard Census, a multi-stakeholder project whose results fed into national and international policy. I built the Carnivore Tracker app, the first of its kind in Namibia.
Institutional career: BirdLife International, UNEP-WCMC, TRAFFIC International, Earthwatch. Academic Dean at the School of Wildlife Conservation at the African Leadership University. Technology and innovation work with IUCN Tech4Nature, including leading three Innovation Challenge Workshops and contributing to the strategic guidance framework on conservation technology adoption.
The Navigating Web 3.0 Guide: A Tool for Conservation came out of that work. It is a decision-support tool that starts with your conservation goals and operational realities, not the technology. 34 guided questions assess which emerging technologies are worth exploring across four areas: data collection and management, resource allocation and financial management, collaboration and communication, and monitoring and evaluation. Now integrated into the IUCN GSAP SKILLS platform. This guide is where the decision-support work started, and it remains the clearest entry point into conservation technology decision-making for teams new to this field.
Research at the International Conservation Technology Conference, Lima in 2026 confirmed what I had been building toward: the gap in conservation technology is not the tools. It is the structured process for deciding whether, which, and how technology fits an organisation's context.
PhD, Nottingham Trent University. MSc Conservation Biology, Durrell Institute. Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society. IUCN WCPA Task Force on Human-Wildlife Coexistence. Member of the Nature Tech Collective and Top Tier Impact.
Hello! I'm Rebecca, and I am currently at PhD Researcher at Teesside University, and Course Leader for Higher Education at East Durham College. I decided to join MSc Primate Conservation after being inspired during my BSc in Animal Conservation Science. I found a book called "Gorillas in the Mist" and I had a lightbulb moment - primates! I had found my niche. This was confirmed later when I travelled to The Gambia to census the critically endangered Procolobus badius temmincki, during my thesis studying the Callithrix jacchus, and travelling to India to work in a rehabilitation centre for grey langurs and macaques. I absolutely loved the MSc. It broadened my knowledge, increased my opportunities and really kickstarted my professional career. The lecturers are some of the best the field and it was a privilege to be brushing shoulders with such hard-working academics on a daily basis. I conducted my MSc thesis research at Blackpool Zoo, focusing on Gorilla gorilla gorilla social relationships and enclosure use. The chance to work with this charismatic species was a dream come true! The research has helped the zoo redevelop their gorilla enclosure, using my data to make informed decisions. I am also very happy to be part of a fledgeling, yet crucial organisation: Mountain Marmosets Conservation Program. As part of the Core Operation and Development Team, I am responsible for applying for grants, coordinating a team of students to develop a workshop planning meeting, and researching anything and everything about marmosets! This wonderful program is aiming to help develop an Action Plan to help save the endangered marmoset species' Callithrix aurita and Callithrix flaviceps. I hope to become even more involved with the program as we progress.
I am passionate about primates, felids and large mammals, conservation education and outreach.