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. 

I want to find new ways to have a positive impact on the environment and communities around the world. How I do this is pretty open; I have wide-ranging interests (including the arts and spending time outside) and am willing to adapt to changing circumstances.  Although I've stepped back from being a community advocate for the WildHub community, I'm still happy to answer questions about the platform and will do what I can to help connect people.

I have been in the field of conservation for more than 8 years. After completing my bachelor's programme in Natural Resources Management, I joined the Consultoria de asesores Forestales S.A. de C.V. in Mexico focusing on the estimation of tree's biomass and volume for the sustainable use of forest product. I later furthered my studies and joined the Double Degree Master's Programme "ENREM" in Environmental Science at Universidad Autónoma de San Luis Potosí, Mexico and Natural Resources Management & Development at TH Köln, Germany. My master's thesis focused on carbon sequestration in the soil. Currently, I am the Terrestrial Researcher at Belize Audubon Society. In the process of my professional growth, I have seen that Project Management has become very important not just in the business sector but also in conservation. The effective use of tools for the management of resources will assist in the overall efficiency from planning to reporting. 

Passionate lover of nature

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.

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.

My research interests include the natural history & conservation ecology of small mammals, wild cats, Asian elephants, and tapirs, species responses to deforestation & habitat fragmentation, hunting & wildlife trade. I work at the interface between conservation science & applied wildlife management, using evidence-based approaches, statistical analysis, & technologies (EarthRanger, camera-trapping, acoustic sensors, RS imagery, SMART) to advise the conservation of wildlife populations in tropical Asia, Oceania and East Africa.

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'm a natural resource ecologist and transformative social entrepreneur with more than five years of experience working with diverse communities and stakeholders in Kenya. I'm currently a Co-Founder and the Director of Strategy and Business Development at EcoHope Africa. EcoHope Africa is a women founded and led social startup venture devoted to shifting the conservation paradigm in Africa by leveraging nature-based investments and solutions to leverage social justice in Africa. Additionally, I'm a Conservation Catalyst for WildHub where my role is to catalyze the sharing of lessons learnt among WildHub members. I hold a Master of Research (MRes.) in Biodiversity, Evolution and Conservation from the University College London (UCL) and a Bachelor of Science (BSc.) in Range Management from the University of Nairobi. I have considerable experience working in community-based conservation initiatives in different parts of Kenya including Maasai Mara, Tsavo, and the Coast. My expertise is in the optimization of the Human-Wildlife interface to ensure sustainable utilization of natural resources and harmonious coexistence of nature and man. I'm also an amateur birder 🐦 and a novice poet 🖋.

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.

I'm a Trustee of WildTeam UK - an organisation providing conservationists with the training and skills needed to design and deliver their projects. I am also Director of the Whitley Fund for Nature - a London-based charity offering conservation leaders across the Global South funding (Awards), training and profile boost.