Ana Yi Soto is a specialist in communications and cooperation for development. Her 12-year professional experience spans the non-profit and private sectors, including NGOs such as Conservation International and Wildlife Conservation Society. She is knowledgeable in rural development, conservation programs, and youth movements across Latin America, Africa, and Europe.  
 In 2007, she co-founded the International Network of Students for Peace, RED ESPAZ Peru, and on Earth Day 2023, she launched Crea Planeta, a creative agency for planet restoration based in social marketing and behavioral insights. Ana is a Peruvian national and lives in Madagascar, close to the Makira National Park. 
    
    
  
       I'm Liane, and I am a WildLearning Specialist at WildTeam! I'm looking forward to getting to know you all! 
 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. 
    
    
  
        Sikela Namangolwa
        
      
    Environmental Education Officer, Wildlife & Environmental Conservation Society of Zambia
      
Hi all! I am currently Fauna & Flora Internationals (FFIs) Senior Programme Manager for Conservation Capacity and Leadership. I have a lovely broad remit, but at its heart my job is to support FFI staff and partners strengthen skills in establishing, managing and supporting FFIs conservation work. I do this in lots of ways- designing and running training events, supporting the application of new skills/learning to peoples work, setting up mentoring relationships and peer to peer learning groups, organising exchange visits, work shadowing, master classes etc. We have a big focus on knowledge management in FFI, so don't just focus on how to bring in new knowledge and learning into our organisation, but how to share and apply all the incredible knowledge and skills our 400 strong team already have
I have an MSc in Environmental Technology and PhD in Anthropology from UCL where I specialised in human-environment interactions, with a stint as a Teaching Fellow in Human Ecology (maternity cover). Prior to joining FFI, I spent a number of years working in the Central African Republic to assess and improve the integration of conservation and development in the Dzanga-Sangha region, and following gorillas up and down volcanoes in Rwanda with the Dian Fossey Gorilla Fund International. Before joining FFI's Conservation Capacity team in 2013, I spent 5 years in FFI’s Africa team, co-ordinating and managing projects in Liberia, West Africa. 
    
    
  
        Marta Villasán Barroso
        
      
    Biodiversity Conservation Biologist , Ecoenergías del Guadiana / Fauna&Vida NGO / SEO BirdLife
       I'm from Badajoz, a little city near Portugal at Extremadura, Spain. I love my region because is plenty of wild nature, birds, forests, rivers... but is endangered too. 
 I have a BSc in Biology and a MSc in Biodiversity Conservation. I have more than 15 years of experience in Environmental Education with school kids and the general public. I'm interested in all related topics about ecology, conservation and all living creatures and their relationships, that makes possible the life on Earth.  
 I have worked in Paraguay granted by University of Salamanca and UNESCO Chair "Education for Sustainable Development: Strengthening lines of research in the area of biodiversity and the link with society". My duties were teaching experiments design and basic biostatistics at UNA (Universidad Nacional de Asunción); doing a biodiversity's bird research at the San Rafael National Park (the major Atlantic Forest patch remaining), ringing birds and teaching young students how to carry out a basic research; and doing environmental education with young child and population living at the natural park influence area.  
 I stayed at Madeira (Portugal) working on two LIFE projects, one to protect the endemic sparrowhawk "Furabardos" and the other to take care of marine birds. The LIFE projects are the UE tool to support and fund the conservation on their territories.   
 Later I have devoted to natural ecotourism at Extremadura (Spain) and scuba diving tourism at Sharm el Shaik (Egypt), in addition to environmental education, or little research and consultancy tasks. I have a  youtube channel  to outreach environmental issues and my own talks. Is in Spanish, but if you want you could take a look at it.  
 Currently, I have a job at an environmental consulting at Extremadura (Spain), working about the compensatory measures to take during and after the construction of photovoltaic plants. I take care of bird nests, mitigation and prevention of bird and bat mortality at the high voltage lines, soil restoration, reforestation, etc. I'm glad to carry out this work because I'm sure I'm doing the best to protect the nature while the construction of renewable energy plants are trying to reduce the climate change.  
 In addition, I take part from two NGOs: Fauna&Vida, a environmental conservation and education organization from Paraguay, where I'm currently the Education and conservation programs Director, and SEO/BirdLife, the ornithological society to protect birds, where I coordinate the volunteer group in my city.  
    
    
  
        Alan J. Hesse
        
      
    Senior Behaviour Change Specialist (TRAFFIC); also independent author-illustrator and climate educator.., TRAFFIC International
       My conservation career started in 1992 when I helped set up and joined a University expedition to the Bolivian Amazon. What started out as a 3-month experience ended up being a life-changing inflection point that set my professional and personal course to the present day. My conservation experience was built bottom-up and hands-on, and includes field data collection and logistics, grassroots organization leadership and project management, community engagement and capacity building, M&E, training and behavior change, and lately climate education through authorship of graphic novels and other resources. My conservation career includes positions as a senior staff member and a principal investigator at the Bolivian BirdLife Partner Armonía, field investigator in the Gran Chaco with WCS Bolivia, field logistics officer for Conservation International's RAP expeditions, and Programme Manager and Senior Manager of M&E at Rare. I currently work as Senior Behaviour Change Specialist with TRAFFIC International, applying behavioural science approaches to support TRAFFIC's work across wildlife supply chains globally.  
    
    
  
      I help run a UK charity that builds the capacity of conservationists  to plan, implement, monitor, and report on their work. I also have a fair bit of experience in tiger and sea turtle conservation. 
    
    
  
       
 
 
 Greetings, I'm Ussi Abuu, a prominent Conservation Catalyst within the WildHub community, stationed in the beautiful landscapes of Zanzibar, Tanzania. I proudly serve as the INDUSTRY 5.0 Ambassador in Tanzania, advocating for sustainable industrial practices, and I also hold the role of Tanzania Coordinator at the Global Sustainable Future Progress through Partnership network. 
 My journey towards environmental and social progress has been rich and diverse. I previously contributed to the Tanzania Development Trust as a mapper, utilizing geographical data to support development initiatives. Additionally, my commitment to global betterment led me to join the United Nations Volunteers program in 2016, where I've continued to make a meaningful impact. 
 Together, we can explore the vast realm of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and how they intertwine with my experiences and endeavors. Join me on this journey towards a more sustainable and equitable world. 
 
 
 
    
    
  
       Here are the 3 things I am all about:  1. Nature  From day one my favorite place to be and my north star in every life decision I make. I want to protect and rewild as much nature as I possibly can.   In order to do so I created 2 businesses:  Wildya - my attempt to give personal development a wild update  Wild Business Mates - my consulting service to empower wild change makers   2. Personal Development  I am life long learner and believe that we can live happier if we take matters into our own hands. Daily tiny actions accumulate. So with Wildya, I can support you to take action and change your life.    3. Ecopreneurship  The world needs to change. The most successful companies & NGOs of tomorrow generate positive impact at scale. If you attempting to do this, let me help you.  I am building Wildya transparently, to provide a clear blueprint on how to take an idea from 0 to a sustainable business / NGO. Creating a community of wild change-makers, as well as consulting them along the way.  
    
    
  
       I am the founder of Ubuntu Magazine. We share personal stories from the frontlines of conservation globally.  
 I have a background as a Applied Biologist and have been traveling the African continent since September '22 in a Land Rover Defender. Alongside watching wildlife and learning more about new countries and cultures, we (my partner and I) visit projects for Ubuntu Magazine.  
    
    
  
      After a decade of training to be a wildlife conservationist, I founded Lonely Conservationists to help conservationists thrive by providing a platform to be heard, employment pathways and a strong community foundation. As well as running Lonely Conservationists, I teach sustainability incursions and excursions to school students in a classroom, forest and marine park environments.
    
    
  
       I started working with captive rescued monkeys in 1999 and went on to earn an MSc in Primate Conservation (Oxford Brookes University) and another in International Animal Welfare Ethics and Law (University of Edinburgh). I've worked for a number of animal welfare organizations, most recently the Animals Asia Foundation and the Asia for Animals Coalition. I've been trustee and director for Neotropical Primate Conservation since its establishment as a UK charity in 2007. I'm particularly interested in the way human and non-human primates relate to one another, and the intersection between conservation and animal welfare. I feel that it's important that these are treated as complimentary, rather than contradictory, concepts. At present I am exploring primate welfare in the context of human-macaque conflict mitigation strategies. Please feel free to contact me here to talk about this if it's of interest to you! I am originally from the US but have lived in the UK for many years. 
    
    
  
       I am a WildLearning Specialist at WildTeam with a PhD in Conservation Biology. 
    
    
  
       I work for WildTeam UK, helping to deliver training workshops, write conservation best practice manuals and share them as widely as possible. Previously a Writing Fellow working with various conservation organisations across India. Background in research, particularly behavioural ecology. Bird nerd. 
    
    
  
       I'm a biodiversity consultant working mainly in the corporate space. I work with large companies to help them figure out their nature-related impacts, dependancies, risks and opportunities, then use this information to create biodiversity strategies.  
    
    
  
       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.  
    
    
  
       Hello! I'm Léa and I'm a WildLearning Specialist with WildTeam UK. I help create, design and deliver training courses. I love getting to know all the participants and learning from them :) 
 Previously, I was working with BirdLife International on forest governance issues and in my previous life I worked in the development sector in the United States. Education-wise, I have studied economic development, international relations as well as tropical forestry in the past.  
 Hope to catch you in a WildHub social!