With a growing human population and an increasing need for natural resources, exclusive nature conservation approaches are facing their limits. Finding a balance between the protection of dwindling natural treasures on the one hand and providing livelihoods to deprived local communities on the other is the challenge we are facing in conservation today.
As a consequence, many traditional conservation organisations are feeling the need to incorporate the human dimension into their projects. At the same time, humanitarian organisations are realizing that including sustainable development and the protection of natural resources into their processes is beneficial.
I am offering a broad spectrum of structural, process-oriented and technical knowledge to strengthen participatory community involvement in biodiversity conservation projects. My experiences include designing governance instruments, participatory approaches, ownership development and sustainable alternative livelihood projects.
In areas where there are difficult interactions between people and wildlife, both the wildlife species and people can be negatively impacted - this is human-wildlife conflict (HWC). Whether it is elephants damaging granaries and houses, wild boars feeding on crops or carnivores killing livestock in pastures, people suffer and experience fear. If not addressed adequately, people feel isolated and disregarded and their support for conservation efforts may decrease.
In many cases technical approaches to decrease crop, property and livestock losses can greatly support the process of conflict management. However, most such situations also have strong cultural, historic and political dimensions, which need to be taken into consideration to sustainably avoid, reduce, and mitigate conflict risks.
With a profound expertise on HWC management practises in African and Asian countries, I offer socio-ecologic HWC monitoring and analysis as well as technical hands-on trainings and workshops. I further support your organisation and projects in developing community-based approaches focused on the process of sustainable HWC management.
Before launching new conservation and development projects, the client or investor needs to assess its practicality. Strengths and weaknesses, as well as opportunities and common threads, need to be identified and considered. For this, organisations and institutions may want to select objective and independent experts to support their decision making.
With my extensive experience in the international non-profit sector and my scientific background, I am conducting feasibility studies for conservation and development projects, carrying out socio-economic surveys with a focus on the use of natural resources and preparing reviews for current practices of conservation and development trends.
My work is characterized by a practical mind-set, target-oriented functioning and sound scientific thinking.
From 15 years of project management experience I have learned about the importance of realistic and thorough project planning. Planning in the field of conservation, including human dimensions, can be quite unpredictable and might require adjustments on the way. For this, monitoring of project activities and outcomes is highly important. In fact, I am convinced that most conservation and development endeavours will only be successful by implementing and using comprehensive monitoring schemes.
Together with your team, I will develop and implement project plans along with comprehensive monitoring schemes. I will also conducti objective programme evaluation through quantitative and qualitative methods. My aim is to understand successes and challenges in your projects to achieve continued learning and upscaling of your activities.
