Aristo Mendis
Analyst Lead, Counter Wildlife Trafficking Program, Wildlife Conservation Society (India)
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.
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!
Jim Barborak is Senior Adviser of the Center for Protected Area Management at Colorado State University, an outreach arm of the Warner College of Natural Resources at CSU. His B.S. and M.S. in natural resources are from Ohio State University, and he took additional coursework mid-career at the Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies. His specialties include protected areas and corridor planning and management; wildlife management; conservation finance, policy and governance; capacity building; and ecotourism. He began his career working for county government in his native Ohio, and then joined the US Peace Corps as a Volunteer and was assigned to work with the Honduran Wildlife Department. That began an international career now spanning more than 40 years. He has worked for US, Costa Rican and Honduran government conservation agencies, as a consultant to several UN organizations including UNESCO, the UN Development Program and FAO, as a private consultant, and for universities. He has worked in nearly 30 countries, particularly in Latin America and the Caribbean, but also in Africa and Asia. He is an active member of the World Commission on Protected Areas and serves on several of its specialist groups, including those on Tourism, Conservation Finance, Capacity Building, and Indigenous Peoples, Local Communities and Equity. He is a native English speaker, fluent in Spanish, and speaks conversational Portuguese. Throughout his career, Jim has worked on efforts to plan and develop increased opportunities for public enjoyment of protected areas, through tourism, recreation, and environmental education programs. At the same time, he has been actively involved in efforts to increase the stream of benefits to local communities and indigenous populations living in and around protected areas, through their direct involvement in tourism and through other mechanisms to create employment and improve livelihoods in conservation units, the buffer zones that ring them, and the corridors that connect them.
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.
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 hold a Master of Arts Degree in Development Studies, with Major in Agrarian, Food and Environmental Studies (Specialisation - Environment and Sustainable Development) from International Institute of Social Studies (ISS) of Erasmus University Rotterdam. I am a highly skilled Natural Resources Conservationist, Agricultural and International/Rural Development expert with 15years experience in developing, implementing and monitoring forestry and wildlife conservation programs; linking agribusiness to conservation, community empowerment and climate change mitigation and adaptation in Zambia. I have coordinated various programs with international donors including the World Food Program of the United Nations, UNDP, the World Bank, WWF and USAID among others, in Agriculture, climate change adaptation and mitigation and Natural Resources management. Excellent skills in stakeholder engagement and networking; coordinated projects and programs with the Zambian Government, local and international donors and other support stakeholders. Good skills in financial resource mobilization through proposal writing.