Participants de WCS

Antony Lynam joined the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS), a New York-based international conservation agency, in 1996. He has more than 20 years of experience implementing and advising wildlife conservation projects in Asia. Based in Bangkok, Thailand he serves as Regional Technical Advisor for wildlife protection and applied conservation projects in Bangladesh, Cambodia, China, Indonesia, Lao PDR, Mongolia, Myanmar, Malaysia, and the Russian Far East. He has written training curricular and trained over one thousand Asian and African government research, wildlife and protected area staff, and university students in ecological methods, especially wildlife survey and monitoring, and protection techniques. He helped conduct the first national surveys for tigers in Malaysia and Myanmar. He helped organize and conduct some of the first multiagency wildlife law enforcement training courses in the region. He has written and helped implement recovery programmes for tigers, Asian elephants and other endangered species, and recently served as a technical consultant to the CITES Monitoring the Illegal Killing of Elephants (MIKE) Programme. He participated in Training of Trainers courses undertaken by the SMART partnership, and has led training exercises in SMART law enforcement monitoring in Asia and southern Africa. He provided inputs to the IUCN Guidelines for Managing Wildlife Crimes in Protected Areas. He is Chair of the Association for Tropical Biology and Conservation (ATBC) Asia – Pacific Chapter, and a Board Member of the Society for Conservation Biology – Asia Section. He has written or contributed to over 60 peer-reviewed research and popular articles related to wildlife conservation that have been cited over 1,600 times.

Caleb leads WCS’s cross-cutting strategies designed to mitigate global drivers of environmental decline. This portfolio includes WCS’s programs for the oceans and fisheries, climate mitigation and adaptation, livelihoods, and markets. Caleb also provides overall strategic leadership and representation for WCS’s organizational efforts to build multi-institutional partnerships with NGOs, corporations, and the philanthropic sector to heighten our impact beyond the footprint of WCS’s 3,000+ staff in 60 countries worldwide. Caleb also holds appointments as Adjunct Faculty at Columbia University’s School of Public and International Affairs, and the Earth Institute Center for Environment and Sustainability; and serves as an overseer of the Woods Hole Sea Education Association, and an advisor the New England Aquarium Marine Conservation Action Fund. Previously, Caleb directed WCS’s global marine conservation efforts to improve fisheries, establish effective marine reserves and conserve some of the world’s most important marine biodiversity. In this role, Caleb managed a team of several hundred marine conservationists in the waters of 24 countries across all five oceans in addition to the conservation efforts of the New York Aquarium. Prior to WCS, Caleb spent over ten years at sea and abroad as an Environmental Advisor to the Republic of the Marshall Islands, and as a GIS analyst and marine scientist with Woods Hole Sea Education Association. Caleb holds an undergraduate degree from Middlebury College in Environmental Studies and Geography, and a Master’s and PhD from the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University in International Environmental Policy and Development Economics.

Carlos Durigan has an academic background in Geography and a wide experience in Environmental Conservation of the Amazon, where he lives and works for more than 20 years. Since finishing his master´s degree in Ecology at the National Institute of Amazonian Research (INPA), he has been engaged in a variety of activities related to biodiversity conservation. These activities have included creation and implementation of protected areas; multidisciplinary, field-based research on biodiversity and socioeconomic diversity; and participation in biological, socioeconomic and ethno-environmental surveys to support projects and actions in conservation units and indigenous lands. He has also participated in a variety of forums and NGOs networks, that have contributed to the formation of socio-environmental public policies for the Amazon region.

Christina received her Bachelor's Degree in Natural Resources from Cornell University in 2008. In December 2013, Christina completed her Masters in Public Administration from Baruch College. She began working for the Wildlife Conservation Society as the Government Affairs Associate in September 2008. She is currently the Manager for Government and Community Affairs. In this role, Christina works on securing funding for WCS facilities, increasing awareness and research on WCS policy initiatives, partnering with local community groups to help them gain access to WCS facilities, and managing department operations.

Dr. Claudio Campagna is a conservation biologist with the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) and Adjunct Professor at the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at UCSC. He has an MD from the University of Buenos Aires, Argentina, and a PhD in Biology from UCSC. He has been a field conservationists and animal behaviorist working with marine mammals in Patagonia, Argentina, since the 1980. He funded the Forum of NGOs for the conservation of the Patagonian Sea, and has been serving in the Steering Committees of many conservation organizations, such as the Species Survival Commission of the IUCN. Claudio envisioned and supported the creation of marine protected areas, including the first open ocean MPA, Burdwood-Namuncurá Bank. Recognizing the urgent need to promote conservation using creative communication tools, Claudio publishes widely in both the scientific and popular literature. Lately, he has been reflecting on the viability of changing the vision of the conservation movement applying concepts developed by language philosophers. He started a project with philosopher Daniel Guevara on the Language of Conservation. It bridges Biology and Ethics and is inscribed in the Center for Public Philosophy, at UCSC. 

Dr. Cristián Samper, a tropical biologist and an international authority on conservation biology and environmental policy, began his tenure as President and CEO of the Wildlife Conservation Society on August 1, 2012. He joined WCS after serving for a decade as Director of the Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of Natural History, the world’s largest natural history collection. At WCS, Dr. Samper leads the preeminent conservation organization with field programs in 65 nations and in all the world’s oceans; and oversees the Bronx Zoo, New York Aquarium, Central Park Zoo, Prospect Park Zoo and Queens Zoo, which welcome more than 4 million visitors annually.

As Director of the Climate Adaptation Fund at the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS), Darren is responsible for all management, administration, communications and grantmaking activities for a program which has invested more than $10 million to support nonprofit conservation organizations working to implement applied on-the-ground climate adaptation projects. The Fund is designed to promote the resilience of ecosystems and wildlife to climate change impacts, incentivize the development of a new field of conservation for wildlife adaptation, and to catalyze broad integration of adaptation principles amongst public management agencies and nonprofit conservation organizations. Before joining WCS in 2006, Darren spent four years at The Arthur M. Blank Family Foundation in Atlanta, Georgia, where his work focused on green space preservation and the expansion and improvement of urban parks through the Foundation’s Environmental Initiative. Also in Georgia, Darren served as the Program Associate for Habitat at the Turner Foundation. There, his principal focus was the funding of public policy advocacy, litigation and local grassroots efforts to preserve terrestrial and marine biodiversity through landscape-scale habitat protection. Prior to his work at the Turner Foundation, Darren studied social behavior and cognition with apes and monkeys while managing research, conservation and education programs for the Living Links Center - Emory University's institute for the study of human and ape evolution.

Elizabeth Bennett is Vice President, Species Conservation, at WCS. Raised in the UK, Elizabeth went to Nottingham University to read zoology, and then to Cambridge University for her PhD on the ecology of primates in Peninsular Malaysia. She then moved to Sarawak, Malaysia in 1984, and lived and worked there for the next 18 years. Her first role there was working jointly for WCS and WWF Malaysia, to conduct the first-ever detailed study of the ecology and conservation needs of the proboscis monkey. She subsequently conducted many projects for WCS and the Sarawak Government, culminating in her leading a team, with WCS and Sarawak Government staff, to write a comprehensive wildlife policy for the State, and subsequently to head a unit within the Government to oversee its implementation. A core part of the policy and its implementation comprised ways to control unsustainable hunting and wildlife trade. More recently, Elizabeth has worked to direct wildlife trade initiatives for WCS field staff globally as Director of the Hunting and Wildlife Trade Program. Her work included developing and implementing a policy on bushmeat trade in Central Africa, and working on a strategic plan to address wildlife trade in China. She provided technical support to WCS field staff working on hunting and wildlife trade issues in 65 projects and 29 countries worldwide. She has more than 120 scientific and popular publications, includingco-editing a book which is a comprehensive review of the issue of hunting in tropical forests, and the World Bank policy paper on the same topic. Her services to conservation have been recognized by her being awarded the “Golden Ark” award by Prince Berhard of the Netherlands in 1994, the “Pegawai Bintang Sarawak” (PBS) by the Sarawak State Government in 2003, “Member of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire” (MBE) by Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II in 2005, Leila Hadley Luce Award for Courage by Wings WorldQuest in 2006, and D.Sc. (honoris causa) by Nottingham University, UK in 2008.

Liz Matthews is the Assistant Director of the Marine Program. She has a PhD in Marine Affairs from the University of Rhode Island, where she studied approaches to community-based resource management. Prior to working at WCS, Liz spent 8 years with a local NGO in Palau, Micronesia assisting communities to manage marine and terrestrial protected areas. She designed and executed studies on the local importance of marine turtles, dugongs and birds and the impacts of human uses and activities on their status. She helped develop strategies to improve resilience of local communities and marine protected areas to climate change. She also received a Fulbright Fellowship for marine resource related research in Fiji.

Erika Rowland is a conservation scientist working for the Wildlife Conservation Society’s North America Program with a background in forest resources, palaeoecology, and applied conservation. For several years she has focused on climate change adaptation for natural resource conservation in sites across North America, applying both vulnerability assessment and other climate impact science and engaged in the decision-making and approaches that support it. She has also been involved in developing adaptation-oriented guidance and trainings with the many partners, including the USFWS National Conservation Training Center. Erika earned degrees from the University of Alaska Fairbanks (MS) and University of Maine (PhD).

James is an Associate Professor Fellow at University of Queensland and Director of Science and Research Initiative at the Wildlife Conservation Society. For the past six years, James has directed WCS’s climate change program, leading the planning and implementation of climate adaptation and REDD+ projects throughout WCS’s landscape, seascape, and species conservation programs. He currently serves on the leadership committee for the Science for Nature and People (SNAP) Initiative, the International Panel for Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES) Data and Knowledge Task Force, and was chair of the IUCN’s climate change specialist group. James was recently elected the global president of the Society for Conservation Biology. He is the director the Green Fire Science research group (www.greenfirescience.com) whose mission is to do applied research that is linked directly to the practice of conservation. in 2004 where, funded by a Rhodes Scholarship, he explored the effects of habitat fragmentation on birds in Madagascar and Australia. James is the current President-elect of the Society of Conservation Biology; Chair of the IUCN’s Climate Change Specialist Group; an Associate Professor at the University of Queensland, Australia; an editor of four conservation journals (Conservation Biology, Diversity and Distributions, Scientific Reports, and Pacific Conservation Biology); and he has published more than 80 peer-reviewed and popular articles on conservation-related issues.

John F. Calvelli is the Executive Vice President of Public Affairs for the Wildlife Conservation Society. John serves on the Executive Management team that manages the overall organization and he specifically oversees the work of WCS in Government and Community Affairs, Policy, Communications, Marketing and the WCS Digital Program. John is leading and coordinating the organization’s effort to build a wildlife conservation movement that will inspire and engage the public in this effort. He is currently the Director of the 96 Elephants Campaign with more than 200 partner organizations. John was a founder and currently serves as Chair of the International Conservation Partnership (ICP), which is comprised of senior public affairs representatives from the major global U.S. conservation organizations. He also serves on the board of the Bodhi Tree Foundation.

Prior to joining WCS, John served as the Chief of Staff in Washington, DC to Congressman Eliot Engel, Ranking Member of the United States House of Representatives Foreign Affairs Committee. The Republic of Italy bestowed the honorific title of Knighthood in the Order of Merit to John for his work promoting stronger US-Italy relations. He graduated from Fordham University and went on to earn a law degree from Fordham Law School.

As the Executive Vice President for Conservation and Science at the Wildlife Conservation Society, John Robinson oversees WCS conservation programs in the Americas, Africa and Asia. Focusing on primate behavior and ecology, he received his doctorate in zoology from the University of North Carolina in 1977. His postdoctoral studies were with the Smithsonian Institution. In 1980, he joined the faculty of the University of Florida, and established the Program for Studies in Tropical Conservation, a graduate program providing training to students from tropical countries. He joined the Wildlife Conservation Society in 1990. He is a Past President of the Society for Conservation Biology, served as Chairman of the Board of The Christensen Fund and of Foundations of Success. Recently, he was elected Councilor for North America and Vice President with the IUCN. In 2003, Dr. Robinson was inducted into the Royal Order of the Golden Ark by King Bernhard of the Netherlands, in recognition of lifetime achievement and service to conservation.

John Robinson has written extensively on the impact of subsistence and commercial hunting in tropical forests, and has a long interest in the sustainable use of natural resources. He is interested in the relationship between conservation research and practice, and the application of conservation theory to conservation policy and implementation. He has over 180 publications, including "Neotropical Wildlife Use and Conservation" (1991), co-edited with Kent Redford, “Hunting for sustainability in tropical forests" (2000), co-edited by Elizabeth Bennett, “The Cutting Edge. Conserving wildlife in tropical forests” (2001), co-edited with Robert Fimbel and Alejandro Grajal, and “Conservation of exploited species” (2001), co-edited with John Reynolds, Georgina Mace and Kent Redford.

Joe is currently the Vice President for Field Conservation Programs. Prior to this position, Joe was the Executive Director for the Asia Program and spent time in a regional leadership role in Zambia and as the Country Director for the Gabon Program. Prior to Africa, he was in Asia for WCS as the Director of the Cambodia Program, where had been working for eight years. In 2005 his contributions to Cambodian conservation were recognized by Prime Minister Hun Sen with the awarding of its highest civilian honor. Joe has previously worked in conservation in Indochina for ten years.

Julie L. Kunen is currently the Vice President of the Americas program at the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS), where she oversees conservation activities in 15 countries, from Canada to Tierra del Fuego. Dr. Kunen joined WCS in 2011, in the capacity of Executive Director for the Latin America and Caribbean Program, after serving as Senior Advisor and Chief of Staff in the Bureau for Policy, Planning, and Learning at the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), and Special Assistant to the Administrator of USAID. From 2005-2009, she was the Forestry Advisor in USAID’s Latin America and Caribbean Bureau, managing regional conservation programs in the Amazon and advising on climate change, sustainable forestry, and natural resources management programming in the region. Dr. Kunen joined USAID as a AAAS Science Policy Fellow in 2003. Dr. Kunen received a Ph.D. in anthropology from the University of Arizona in 2001 and spent two years teaching anthropology and archaeology before joining USAID. She is Adjunct Professor in the Department of Anthropology at the University of Maryland. Dr. Kunen is the author of several scholarly articles and a book, “Ancient Maya Life in the Far West Bajo: Social and Environmental Change in the Wetlands of Belize".

Kirk Olson joined the WCS Mongolia program in October 2015. Kirk began his career working in the arid rangelands of Patagonia on a study of guanacos and mountain lion ecology. This work led him to the steppes of eastern Mongolia to develop a long-term research program of Mongolian gazelle and their grassland habitat with the support of WCS and earned his PhD in Wildlife Conservation (2008, UMass Amherst). Kirk brings experience working with NGO’s, development agencies, extractive industry, local people, and has experience working in Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, China, and Mongolia. Kirk is a member of the IUCN Antelope Specialist Group, a Convention on Migratory Species (CMS) co-focal point for Mongolian gazelles, and is the project director for the IUCN Temperate Grasslands Conservation Initiative. Kirk has published over 30 peer review publications, consultancy reports, and book chapters. Kirk lives in Mongolia with his wife and daughter.

Madhu is a Senior Advisor and Representative of WCS in Singapore. She has provided technical, strategic and programme development support for WCS country programmes across Asia. She has broad experience with international protected area and wildlife policy and has engaged extensively with conservation planning and regional-scale conservation prioritization. She serves as Advisor to the secretariat of the Asian Species Action Partnership (ASAP), an IUCN Species Survival Commission (SSC) initiative to catalyze conservation action for Critically Endangered species in the ASEAN region that is led by the Wildlife Reserves Singapore (WRS). She has a Master’s and PhD degrees from Duke University and is currently an Adjunct Faculty member in the Department of Biological Sciences at the National University of Singapore (NUS). She has published scientific research on wildlife exploitation and trade, protected area effectiveness, human-wildlife conflict and community management of protected areas.

Mariana Varese is the Director of Amazon Landscapes and the Citizen Science for the Amazon Project at the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS). A natural resources economist with over 15 years of conservation experience in the Amazon and Latin America and the Caribbean, Mariana Varese holds an M.A. In Latin American Studies from the University of Florida. Mariana has ample experience in community-based conservation, landscape and multi-scale conservation approaches, natural resource economics, and evidence-based participatory planning and adaptive management. Her current areas of interest citizen engagement in science, conservation and sustainable development; the effective use of evidence in decision making; and public goods.

Mary Dixon, with more than 30 years of communications experience, serves as Senior Vice President of Communications for the Wildlife Conservation Society, based at the Bronx Zoo. She began this position in October, 2007. As SVP of Communications, she manages internal communications, earned media, crisis communications and corporate communications for WCS’s zoos and aquarium (Bronx Zoo, Central Park Zoo, Prospect Park Zoo, Queens Zoo, New York Aquarium), and for its conservation work in more than 60 nations around the world. Previously, Ms. Dixon worked in the Clinton/Gore White House, Capitol Hill, and as an award-winning journalist working in newspapers, magazines and television. In addition, she works as an adjunct professor at Fordham University teaching political communications.

Matthew is the Director for WCS International Policy and Programme Development based in London, UK. HIs policy focus includes engagement with the World Heritage Convention to help safeguard the protected areas at the heart of WCS Global Priority Regions, forest policy, and managing the impacts of extractive industry on biodiversity. Matthew previously directed the WCS country programme in Madagascar and the WCS office in Brazzaville, Republic of Congo, prior to moving back to Europe in 2002. In Congo, he helped establish Nouabale-Ndoki National Park and co-managed, with government counterparts, a capacity-building programme for protected area managers nationally. He now represents WCS on the Executive Committee of the Conservation Leadership Programme, a joint capacity-building programme with two other international conservation NGOs. In Madagascar, he was instrumental in the creation of Masoala and Sahamalaza/Iles Radama National Parks and completed the Masoala National Park management plan in 1998. He is co-author of books on Masoala and on the role of zoos and aquaria in in situ wildlife conservation.

Melvin Gumal completed his PhD at the University of Cambridge on the Ecology and Conservation of flying foxes in Sarawak. He is now the Director of WCS Malaysia Program. He has been heading WCS Malaysia since 2003. Previously he worked for the Sarawak Government in the National Parks and Wildlife Division as the head of the Education and Internpretation Unit (1988 - 2002). He was awarded Sarawak Government's Excellence Awards for two years consecutively (1993 and 1994). He has received several scholarships: WWF Prince Bernhard Scholar, 1993 - 1994; EU-ASEAN Scholar, 1993 - 1994; British Council's Chevening Award, 1997 - 2001 and Nik Ahmad Kamil Award, 1997 - 2001. Current interest is on tigers, elephants, orangutans and small carnivores.

Molly Cross, Ph.D., is the Climate Change Adaptation Coordinator for the North America Program of the Wildlife Conservation Society. Her work focuses on bringing together science experts and conservation practitioners to translate broad-brush climate change adaptation strategies into on-the-ground conservation actions. Molly is helping to lead climate change planning efforts involving diverse stakeholders at several landscapes across North America, focused on a range of targets from individual species to more complex ecosystems. She recently co-edited the book Climate and Conservation: Landscape and Seascape Science, Planning and Action, and co-wrote a guidebook and associated training course on Scenario Planning as a tool for climate change adaptation. Molly has contributed to several national climate change efforts including the U.S. National Climate Assessment, the Association of Fish and Wildlife Agencies guidance on incorporating climate change into state wildlife action plans, and the Climate-Smart Conservation guide to climate adaptation. She is the Science Advisor to the WCS Climate Adaptation Fund, which supports applied projects demonstrating effective interventions for wildlife adaptation to climate change. Molly got her Ph.D. in Environmental Science, Policy and Management from the University of California, Berkeley, where she studied ecosystem responses to climate warming and plant diversity loss in the Colorado Rocky Mountains.

Nat Moss serves as Executive Director, Strategic Communications at WCS.

Noviar Andayani completed her PhD in Conservation Biology at University of Indonesia, where she also served as a lecturer for the past twenty years. She was the head of graduate program in conservation biology at the same university when she joined WCS Indonesia Program. While she continues her teaching roles, she also leads WCS Indonesia Program as the country director. Outside these two institutions, she is also chairing the Indonesian Primatological Association and was one of the key contributor to the national strategy for orangutan conservation.

Ray Victurine leads the WCS Business and Conservation Initiative, which engages with industry and governments to support policies and practices that seek to balance conservation objectives with development interests through design and implementation of best practices aimed at reducing and compensating for impacts on biodiversity and ecosystem services. Ray has more than 25 years experience working on conservation and sustainable development issues in Latin America, Africa, and Asia, and has lived and traveled extensively throughout these regions promoting sustainable development programs and policies that achieve conservation outcomes and economic development objectives. Ray is trained as a natural resource economist with a focus on water resources. Prior to joining WCS, Ray was an environmental consultant focused on sustainability and conservation financing. He also contributed to the establishment of two conservation trust funds in Africa and Asia, and also worked in Uganda where he contributed to national environmental policy, tourism development, and creation of a national-level private conservation financing institution and land trust.

Robert Tizard is the Technical Advisor to the WCS Myanmar Program. He was born in Canada and grew up in Texas. He graduated from Texas A&M University in 1994 after studying geography and wildlife management. Within weeks of graduation he moved to Laos where he lived for over 10 years. During this period he has worked on birds, bats, tigers, elephants, ecotourism, protected areas and community land and natural resource issues. He has worked with the Wildlife Conservation Society on-and-off in Lao PDR, North Korea and Myanmar. In 2006 Rob moved to Myanmar where he currently works as the Technical Advisor to the Wildlife Conservation Society’s Myanmar Program. Much of his work focuses on land and natural resources issues with local communities especially with marginalized forest communities and increasingly with ethnic armies such as the Kachin and Karen as they work to end years of conflict.

Dr. Sangeeta Mangubhai is Director of WCS-Fiji and has been working with WCS since 2014. She has worked on marine science and conservation in Australia, East Africa, Indonesia and the South Pacific. She completed her Ph.D. in 2007 through Southern Cross University in Lismore, Australia, looking at reproduction and recruitment of corals in Kenya. Since then she has been working on designing marine protected areas, marine spatial planning, community-based management, coastal fisheries, payment for ecosystem services, gender inclusion in fisheries, environmental policy, and climate change. She is a specialist in designing monitoring programs to understand impacts of disturbances on coral reef communities, and the return of investment of conservation strategies. Dr. Mangubhai chairs the Marine Working Group for the Fiji National Areas Committee. She is currently an editor for the journal Pacific Conservation Biology and an adjunct scientist for New England Aquarium. She was recently awarded a 2018 Pew Fellow in Marine Conservation to work towards mainstreaming gender and human rights into coastal fisheries management in Melanesia.

Saw Htun served as Forest Range Officer in Forest Department from 1994 to 1999 after receiving his BSc (Forestry) in 1993. He completed his MSc in Environmental Management and Development at Australian National University, Australia in 2002, and then he joined WCS Myanmar Program. In WCS, he has been mainly involved in biological surveys, socioeconomic surveys, management planning, and monitoring on interventions and threats as a Coordinator in the Northern Forest Complex. In addition, he has contributed to monitoring on tiger and its prey under Tigers Forever Program. He is a member of Species Specialist Group for Asiatic Black Bear and Sun Bear of IUCN since 2005. He also participated in Asia Primate Redlisting Workshop in Cambodia in 2006 and Regional Planning Workshop for Wild Cattle Conservation in Vietnam in 2008. His main publication is "Saw Htun, 2006. 'The Status and Conservation of Bears in Myanmar' in K. Yamazaki (ed.), The 17th International Conference on Bear Research and Management, Japan Bear Network, Karuizawa, Japan. He also received Post Graduate Diploma in International Wildlife Conservation Practices at WildCRU, Oxford University in 2010.

Stephanie Wang works as Climate Change Policy Specialist, Conservation Science and Solutions. Stephanie has over 3 years experience with WCS.

Dr. Susan Lieberman has worked in international biodiversity conservation, at the intersection of science and policy, for more than 25 years, including extensive experience with international wildlife trade and intergovernmental policy. She is now the Vice President, International Policy with WCS. She was Senior Director, International Environmental Policy with The Pew Charitable Trusts from August 2009-July 2013; from 2001-2009, she was the Director of the Global Species Programme of WWF-International. She worked for the U.S. Department of the Interior (Fish and Wildlife Service) from 1990-2001, including several years as Chief of the CITES Scientific Authority. She obtained her Ph.D. in tropical ecology (focused on amphibians and reptiles) from the University of Southern California, Los Angeles, where she also did postdoctoral research (on desert tortoises and prosimians). Sue is a member of the IUCN Species Survival Commission Steering Committee, co-chair of the SSC Policy Subcommittee, and a member of the IUCN SSC Tortoise and Freshwater Turtle Specialist Group.

U Than Myint completed his B.Sc in Forestry in 1981 and joined with Myanmar Forest Department as a Forest officer. Given his excellent abilities, he was selected by the government to attend a M.Sc. in Forestry at the Australia National University in Canberra. After graduating, he was assigned at the University of Forestry to teach students in Forestry. During his stay at the Forest Department, he was also selected to work with UNDP project in Shan State for two years. He resigned from his service in the Forest Department in 1997, when he joined WCS as Research and Training Coordinator. In May 2004 he succeeded to the former Country Program Director, and is still serving in this position nowadays.

For over 16 years Tom Clements has worked on forest policy and biodiversity conservation in Southeast Asia, leading on the design of policy interventions, REDD+ and sustainable landscapes, development of Payments for Ecosystem Services (PES) and impact evaluation for the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS). He has designed and managed programmes funded by most major donors (AFD, Danida, DFID, GEF, Germany, UNDP, USAID, World Bank), spent 3 years as the Chief Technical Advisor on a full-size UNDP/GEF project, and published extensively. From 2009-2011, at the invitation of the Cambodian government, he led on the design of the Cambodia National REDD+ Programme (World Bank/UN-REDD). Over the same period Tom also worked on a PhD at the University of Cambridge, which evaluated the impact of PES and protected areas on forests and local livelihoods in Cambodia. From 2012 he has managed the Cambodia program for WCS and in 2014 he moved to be Regional Director of the Southeast Asia Archipelago for WCS, covering Indonesia, Malaysia and Marine.

Tom Evans leads WCS’s REDD+ and Forest Conservation Program. He coordinates a diverse portfolio of REDD+ demonstration projects around the world and works to ensure that these inform the design of REDD+ systems through UNFCCC negotiations, national REDD+ readiness processes, and voluntary certification standards. Tom has a PhD from the Department of Plant Sciences, University of Oxford, on the sustainable management of wild rattans in Lao PDR. For the past ten years, he has specialized in protected area management in the tropics, with a particular interest in human use of natural resources, and the relationships between agriculture and forest protection. Before joining the climate change program, Tom was with the WCS Cambodia Program for more than nine years, as both Deputy Director and Senior Technical Advisor. Prior to that, he conducted biological surveys and protected areas assessments in many parts of the tropics, and also worked at ProForest on a range of sustainable commodity initiatives with private sector partners.

Wulan began her conservation career almost 10 years ago with an undergraduate research on Sumatran Rhinoceros with the University of Indonesia in 2005-2006. Ever since, rhinos guide her to many conservation endeavor mostly on mammals conservation using statistical model such as species distribution modeling, population estimate, occupancy modeling, and multivariate statistics. She has been largely involved in large-mammals conservation (Sumatran rhinoceros, Sumatran tiger, and Asian Elephant) through her professional work with the Wildlife Conservation Society. Her main geographical work is mostly in Sumatra, and her contribution on conservations are through conducting field research on mammals population, increase the government staff and NGOs partner capacity through various training in population estimation scientifically method and conflict-mitigation scheme, as well as formulating action strategy on Tigers and Rhinos conservation in collaborations with the Indonesian Government, and national and local conservation NGOs.