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Speaker Biographies
^Program
Overview
^World Wilderness Summit
^Wilderness Working Sessions
A few of the influential and
accomplished people who have confirmed their attendance at the
WWC are:
Brief biographies on these as
well as other speakers confirmed to date can be viewed below.
^ return to list
Michael Soulé - USA
One of the world's leading conservation biologists - and the person credited with moving biology out of "ivory tower" of academia and into "conservation activism" - first presented a paper on "Conservation in the Real World". Michael Soulé is Research Professor (Emeritus) in Environmental Studies, University of California, Santa Cruz, and Science Director of The Wildlands Project. He was a founder of the Society for Conservation Biology and The Wildlands Project and has been the president of both. He has written and edited a number of books on biology, conservation biology, and the social context of contemporary conservation. He was elected a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, has received a Guggenheim Fellowship, is the sixth recipient of the Archie Carr Medal, and was named by Audubon Magazine in 1998 as one of the 100 Champions of Conservation of the 20th Century.
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Martin von Hildebrand - Colombia
Ethnologist, visionary and leader in efforts to support forest communities
and protect the ecosystems and biodiversity of the Amazon tropical forest.
For almost 30 years, Dr. Martin von Hildebrand has been carrying out
critical work for the protection of indigenous rights, cultural and
ecological diversity in Colombia. He is the inspiration and founder of the
COAMA Programme, winner of the Right Livelihood Award, 1999, and Fundación
Gaia Amazonas, a Colombian NGO.
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Vandana Shiva - India
Physicist, ecologist and activist. Dr. Vandana Shiva is one of the world's
most dynamic and provocative thinkers on the environment, women's rights and
international affairs. Director of the Research Foundation for Science,
Technology and Ecology, she has been the recipient of various prestigious
awards, including the Golden Plant Award, 1997, and the Right Livelihood
Award, 1993. Vandana Shiva has authored many celebrated publications
including: Staying Alive, Biopiracy, Monocultures of the Mind.
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Wangari Maathai - Kenya
Courageous humanitarian, and ecological pioneer. Dr. Wangari Maathai was the
first woman in black Africa to gain a PhD. She has since been the recipient
of various prestigious awards, including the Goldman Prize and the Right
Livelihood Award, 1984. In 1977 Wangari Maathai started the Green Belt
Movement, using tree planting as an entry point for the promotion of
environmental and social justice. Over 10 million trees have been planted,
and the movement has reached thousands of poor and illiterate women, winning
their trust and empowering them.
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Ian Player - South Africa
Dr. Ian Player is the founder of the Wilderness Foundation (South Africa), the International Wilderness Leadership Foundation (WILD) in the USA and the Wilderness Foundation (UK). He established the World Wilderness Congress, which first convened in Johannesburg in 1977. Dr. Player is widely published and has written numerous books and articles on Wilderness and conservation. Dr. Player started his conservation career as a game ranger with the Natal Parks Board. During this phase his accomplishments were many and included the initiation of the programme that saved the White Rhino from extinction. He introduced Wilderness Trails programmes to game reserves and established facilities in remote game reserves which opened these wilderness areas to the public for enjoyment and nature appreciation. He eventually pioneered a world wide movement to protect and sustain wilderness areas and their many values.
His approach to nature conservation is wide ranging and holistic - embracing psychology and business, politics and tribal people, the arts and sciences, humanities and education - with an emphasis on personal commitment.
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Walter Lusigi - Kenya
Dr. Lusigi is currently a senior advisor with the Global Environment Facility Secretariat where he is responsible for advice on issues related to Biodiversity, Land Degradation and Natural Resources. Dr. Lusigi has several international professional affiliations and is a member of the Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters, an affiliate Professor of Conservation Biology of the University of Oslo and an affiliate member of the faculty of Range Science at Colorado State University. Dr. Lusigi has over 100 publications in his name, 25 of which are of special importance to conservation.
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Credo Mutwa - South Africa
Spiritual guide, author and renowned story-teller.
Credo Mutwa, well-known wise man of Africa and Sanusi (uppermost sangoma) of
all sangomas in southern Africa, is respected and known by people across the
world. His first book, Indaba My Children, brought him international
acclaim and a huge following. His vast knowledge and erudition, combined
with humility and a quiet sense of humour, have also made him a popular
public speaker.
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Michael Fay - USA
Mike Fay has spent his life as a naturalist from the Sierra Nevadas and the Maine woods as a boy, Alaska and Central America in college, to the depths of the African forest today. He received a Bachelor of Science in 1978 from the University of Arizona and then spent six years in the Peace Corps as a botanist in national parks in Tunisia and the savannas of the Central African Republic. He then went on to work with Peter Raven in 1984 at the Missouri Botanical Garden first to do a floristic study on a mountain range on Sudan's western border but ended up doing his Ph.D. on the western lowland gorilla. It was at this time that he first entered the forests of central Africa where he still works. Doctoral work was curtailed several times (graduated 1997) while he surveyed large forest blocks and worked to create and manage the Dzanga-Sangha and Nouabale-Ndoki parks in the Central African Republic and Congo. In 1996 Fay started flying a small airplane low over the forests of Congo and Gabon and realized that there was a vast, intact forest corridor that spanned these two countries from the Oubangui to the Atlantic Ocean. In 1997 he decided to walk the entire corridor, over 1200 miles, systematically surveying trees, wildlife and human impacts on 12 uninhabited forest blocks on a project he developed called the Megatransect. Mike has worked for the past 11 years for the Wildlife Conservation Society of the Bronx and is now based at the National Geographic Society in Washington writing up the Megatransect that was funded by the Expeditions Council.
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Dr.Mohamed T. El-Ashry - Egypt
Mohamed T. El-Ashry is the Chief Executive Officer and Chairman of the Global Environment Facility (GEF). He was the Chief Environmental Adviser to the President and Director of the Environment Department (1991-94) at the World Bank. He also served as Chairman of the Global Environmental Facility (GEF) during its Pilot Phase (1991-94). Dr. El-Ashry received his B.S. degree with honors in 1959 from Cairo University, and his Ph.D. degree in geology in 1966 from the University of Illinois. Prior to joining the World Bank, he served as Senior Vice President with the World Resources Institute (WRI), and as Director of Environmental Quality with the Tennessee Valley Authority. He has held teaching and research positions at Cairo University, Pan-American-U.A.R. Oil Company, Illinois Geological Survey, Wilkes University and the Environmental Defense Fund. He served as Senior Environmental Adviser to UNDP, and as Special Adviser to the Secretary General of the 1992 U.N. Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED). He has published or presented more than one hundred and twenty papers and four books. His recent research interests are in the areas of arid lands, water resources, energy policy, and environmental management. Dr. El-Ashry is a fellow of the Geological Society of America and the American Association for the Advancement of Science. He is listed in American Men and Women of Science and Men of Achievement. In March 1983 he was honored as Air Conservationist of the Year by the Tennessee Conservation League for his role in TVA's air quality and acid rain efforts. In 1990 he was elected to membership in the Third World Academy of Sciences. He was honored by the Secretary General of UNCED for his contributions to the Earth Summit, and received the 1992 Egyptian-American Outstanding Achievement Award.
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Ian Douglas Hamilton - Kenya/UK
Kenyan biologist and expert on elephants and the ivory trade. Technical advisor to CITES in the Monitoring of Illegal Killing of Elephants programme.
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Bittu Sahgal - India
Eloquent Indian journalist, wilderness activist and editor of "Sanctuary " magazine.
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M. A. Partha Sarathy - India
Trustee-WWF-India, and Chairman, Southern Regional Committee Chairman, World Wilderness Trust. Chairman, International Nature Film and Television Festivals Organization - Chairman-Emeritus, IUCN Commission on Education, Gland, Switzerland.
Trained in Film and Television Production in Hollywood, England, France, Sweden and in Japan. Won International Awards including in Berlin, Venice, Edinburgh, Foreign Press Association Award in the USA , etc., Worked with Academy Award winning Director Robert Wise, and associated with renowned French film-maker Jean Renoir, and documentary film-maker Robert Flaherty Headed the biggest Film Studio in Asia, and produced several feature films and Documentaries.
Awarded the United Nations `Global 500' Award for distinction in Environmental Protection and Education/Communication; the `Order of the Golden Arc', and Knighthood from the Netherlands; the `Environmental Achievement Award' in Harvard, USA as well as the 'Environmental Achievement Award' from the Governor of the State of Karnataka, India.
Founded WWF-India and elected Trustee as well as Chairman of the Committee on Education, as well as Trustee-in-charge of the Tiger Conservation Project.
Elected to the Board of Trustees of IUCN, the World Conservation Union, in Switzerland for three consecutive terms of nine years, as Chairman of the Commission on Education and Communication.
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