Celebrating women in conservation

Dr Amy Dickman

Amy is a conservation biologist at the University of Oxford, in the Department of Zoology. Her work focuses “mainly upon understanding the drivers of conflict between humans and large carnivores, and how those issues can be best addressed.”

She also has an interest in wider aspects of carnivore ecology and conservation, and is currently working on a ground breaking project in Tanzania focused on carnivores in the Ruaha landscape, supported by PTES. More information on her work can be found here. 

Dr Sian Waters

Sian is from South Wales and has been working with wildlife for over 20 years. She specialises in primate and carnivore conservation.She believes that local knowledge, and working together with communities is key to conservation.

Sian is now working on a project funded by PTES to protect the Barbary macaques in Morocco, in order to raise public awareness of the issues facing the species. The main threats come from the exploitation of infants for the pet and photo prop trade.

Elena Bykova

Elena is a mammologist, and Executive Secretary of the Saiga Conservation Alliance (SCA) – an international NGO established in 2006 to promote the restoration of the critically endangered saiga antelope.

Saiga are the flagship species of the Eurasian steppe, threatened by illegal hunting for its meat and horns. Oil industry developments and pipelines also hinder their migration.

More information on the project she is working on to protect the saiga can be found here.

Sanne Govaert

Sanne is an Assistant Research Officer at Frontier / Society for Environmental Exploration in Madagascar.

She did a masters degree in global change ecology at Ghent University, and her two biggest passions are sustainability and ecology.

She is currently working on a stag beetle monitoring programme across Europe, as a result of the risks they face. These include habitat fragmentation and a lack of deadwood for their larvae to feed on.

More information on Sanne’s stag beetle project can be found here.

Dr Amanda Vincent

Amanda is a Professor at the Institute for the Oceans and Fisheries, and is currently working on a PTES funded project on seahorses in Vietnam.

The project aims to help improve the country’s management of seahorses to a level where wild populations can tolerate carefully monitored and regulated exports, and will support a vital national assessment of seahorse fisheries and trade.

This, in turn, will lead to much-needed management modifications. Read more about Amanda’s work here. 

Jane Hosegood

Jane is currently a PhD Student within the Molecular Ecology and Fisheries Genetics Laboratory (MEFGL) at Bangor University, and studied Zoology at Sheffield University.
She is interested in the preservation of genetic diversity, and believes that “conservation of genetic diversity is just as important as the conservation of species diversity, if not more so. It preserves the evolutionary potential of a population and therefore gives greater opportunity for adaptation to future change, which is likely to be unpredictable.”

She is currently working on a PTES funded project on Manta and devil rays in Fiji. Read more about Jane’s project. 

Article written by Katie Silver.