Teka Derebew Mesele
Wildlife Tourism Expert , Nech Sar National Park
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I was a police officer in the UK for 25 years. I then retrained as an International Mountain Leader and have guided all over the world. In 2011, I won the Bronze in the Wanderlust Magazine World Guide Awards.
I stumbled into conservation work, firstly in Borneo, and worked on expeditions to Danum Valley and Maliau Basin. This opened my eyes to our need to change the way we do things. As an expedition leader, I was able to educate and encourage my clients when working in the rainforest or at rehabilitation centres.
During the covid confinements when I could no longer work as a guide, I took to writing, and published a novel, Stonechild, where the famous London statues come to life with their important message on climate change. I also trained as a Climate Reality Leader.
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.