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.
Founder President of WildRoots-India, an organization for Climate, Environmental, Biodiversity Awareness & Conservation Education, based in Guwahati, Assam, India. Recipient of the National Green Mentor Award, Govt. of India and Global Teacher Accreditation from the British Council & Cambridge Education Foundation. As a Nationally recognised illustrator & designer, I primarily use Art and Design to connect the youth and communities to activities and programmes related to environmental protection, climate change mitigation and conservation.
Dr Renuka Thakore is the Founder of Global Sustainable Futures: Progress through Partnership Network to achieve Sustainable Development Agenda 2030 targets. She provides a collaborative platform for innovative and transdisciplinary partnerships and capacity development for early career researchers joined by senior experienced researchers from Global South and Global North. Dr Thakore believes in broader sustainable development concept and uses multi-dimensional lens (social, economic, environmental, political, institutional, cultural, and technological) of sustainability, innovations, and theoretical framings to address the problems of societal systems and propagates this through various activities – research, teaching, and practice towards achieving global sustainable goals 2030 and beyond. She encourages systems thinking, engagement and active participation of multiple stakeholders for effective governance and management for sustainable transformations, use of transdisciplinary methodologies, co-creating solutions that are multi-modal and ‘value-added’ to relevant stakeholders. Renuka is proud of having support of 320 Coordinators from 79 countries.
Working in conservation was always my dream job!
It took me a while to get there but fast forward some years and I was leading conservation programmes and teams around the world. During my time in that role I realised that I was both at risk of burnout and had become a little disconnected from the day-to-day conservation impact that I was passionate about. However, I loved developing, supporting and coaching the teams I managed and decided to re-train as a coach so that I could spend more time focusing on supporting others to excel in their role and remain passionate and effective within the conservation sector.
I joined WildHub to stay up-to-date with the conservation world, share my experiences and support conservation professionals however I can.
Ricardo Nogueira Martins (Luzern 1990) is the Executive Director of the Local Protected Landscape of Sousa Superior, and a Researcher collaborator at CECS - Communication and Society Research Centre, a leading research unit of the University of Minho. He holds an MSc in Geography - Planning and Territory Management, and a PgDip in EU Policies and Territorial Cooperation from the University of Minho. During his academic career, he studied at the University of the Balearic Islands, Spain, and worked as a research fellow. He is a member of the World Commission on Protected Areas (WCPA) of the IUCN, a member of the Scientific Committee of the UNESCO Fourth Colony Geopark, and qualified in EIA – Environmental Impact Assessment as a competent expert in Territory and Soil by QPAIA. He truly believes in green diplomacy.
Rosalind Bown
Exeter MSc student - Marine Vertebrate Ecology and Conservation, University of Exeter
I work for Conservation Nation we are a new non-profit that relaunched in late 2021 after a long, prior history of being Friends of the National Zoo in Washington, DC.
I head up the marketing and communications along with running the grants program. Our focus is helping to make the conservation field accessible to a broader group of people and amplify those voices through our grants, education and outreach programs. My background is in program management, marketing and communications but my passion has always been in conservation and I've had the opportunity to volunteer for several conservation organizations. My two parallel paths have intersected with my role at Conservation Nation.
I am passionate to conserve wild life. preserve what is left and sustain the future. I may bring value with my transformational work for the last 30 years in IT.
I have been a transformation coach in software and business industry for almost 20 years, my expertise is to help companies finding their obstacles and transform their ways of working into a collaborative, respectful, integration of diversity and human centric culture. I have been coaching to executives, managers, to software developers in shifting their mindset towards how to work with each other, while adopting new lean and agile practices and mindsets. I often serve as a strategist to the executive in how to make these cultural changes into reality and build a path to for implement the changes.
Most my agile transformations in IT in many companies across different industries were in complex domains (see Cynefin framework), where cause and effect can only be deduced in retrospect, and there are no right answers. These transformations are cultural and thinking mindset shifts, requires human behavioral changes. The solutions often required experimentation and redefining solutions based on introspections and continuous feedbacks.
The magnitude of the transformation ranges from 4000 to 40,000 people in the organization.
I believe and proven I have the skillset to:
help people looking at the problem from a different perspective
use Lean Startup and experimentation for creating effective conservation solutions
facilitate people with conflicting views to come to a common solution
design a strategy to change the culture
define a path to reach the end goal
I had work variety a conservation area. I started as young researcher, and then I work in Restoration Ecosystem also have experience with community development. Right now, I work as management support for orangutan conservation and running project landscape based in Leuser and Batang Toru. Also, I aim to as Project Management Specialist.
I am a conservation scientist focused on understanding the impacts of landscape-scale disturbance on tropical biodiversity. I’m particularly interested in how we can combine acoustic technologies and machine learning to quantitatively assess these impacts, as well as assess the effectiveness of conservation initiatives. I'm currently a postdoc researcher at the Nelson Institute for Environmental Studies, UW-Madison using soundscapes to assess the value of forest certification for wildlife in logged forests in Gabon. Previously, I completed my PhD at the Durrell Institute of Conservation and Ecology focused on bats in Borneo.
Christine Tansey
Partnership Officer - Better Biodiversity Data project, National Biodiversity Network Trust
I now work for the National Biodiversity Network Trust as Partnership Officer on the Better Biodiversity Data project, which aims to improve infrastructure and access to biodiversity data in Scotland. I recently worked with WildTeam UK engaging conservationists with its training and resources, and supported WildTeam Bangladesh in their work on the conservation of the Sundarbans mangrove forest and Bengal tigers. I have previously co-ordinated conservation research for a UK-based woodland charity, completed a PhD on phenology in plants and trees that involved a lot of citizen science, and have done many short-term research and conservation jobs over the years.
I have 10 years of experience in animal welfare and conservation ranging from project management, work plans, and managing implementation partners to fundraising, strategic partnerships and communications. I'm also a registered veterinary nurse with knowledge and experience in zoonotic disease/one health.
I've done work in Zambia, Africa as well as on many elephant conservation campaigns.
My special interests are community conservation, counter wildlife trafficking, poaching , human-wildlife conflict, wildlife protection and behavior change.
Jessica Rothwell
Biodiversity, wildlife & ecosystem health project management, strategy development, Rewidling, Nature Restoration
MSc Biodiversity, Wildlife and Ecosystem Health. Experience in project management, strategy development, content development (on and off line), helped to develop one of the first word of mouth marketing agencies and lots of experience in Corporate Communications, Marketing & Advertising. Love all things nature based, adventurous, innovative and positive (whilst able to engage with the less positive to turn things around).
Based in the UK. Passion for wildlife stems from living abroad and global travel to many national parks and protected areas in my youth and early adulthood.
Degree qualifications in agricultural economics/rural resources/environmental policy.
Worked in environmental consultancy projects and waste management (reduction, reuse, recycling) collaboration, campaigns, education and service.
Volunteered part time 2010-2019 for wildlife charities (education/interpretation) and a national park (species surveys and water quality monitoring).
Refreshed knowledge of ecology through online introductory course 2014. Completed certificate in ecological consultancy 2020 under lockdown and gained qualifying membership of CIEEM.
Now wanting to mould and formalise project management experience in the wildlife conservation arena (while still in lockdown!) Feel the combination of skills and experience means I have a useful and valuable contribution to make towards improving the UK's biodiversity and state of nature, which has taken a big hit in the last decade.
Would like to do this in a paid capacity, but definitely in a volunteer role if that's all I can find to start with! Have already started making a contribution.