The African Conservation and Development Foundation

GOVERNANCE

ACDEF is governed by a board of directors which ensures that the organisation is managed to the standards set out in the Memorandum of Association and the Articles of Association as lodged with the companies house and the charity commission for England and Wales.

The board of directors intends to build on its extensive professional contacts and networks in Africa, Western Europe and North America to establish an international technical advisory board which will help strengthen the institutional and technical capacity of the organisation particularly at this critical early stage.

In the meantime, the strong team currently leading ACDEF comprises:

Dr Gil Yaron, Chairman	Dr Gil Yaron founded the sustainable development consultancy GYA (www.gya.co.uk) in 1994 after working in economic consultancy (for NERA and London Economics) and in research (for Oxford University). His academic background is in economics and applied econometrics with a doctorate from Oxford University. This research involved him using quantitative analysis to address policy issues - an interest he has maintained since then. The skills he brings to projects include an understanding of how best to combine qualitative and quantitative methods and how to achieve effective multi-disciplinary working. Much of Gil’s work experience relates to sustainable development in both developing and industrialised countries and he has a particular interest in community-based natural resource management. He is the author of four books (on environmental economic and sustainable development issues) and many reports and papers. Gil has lived and worked extensively in Africa and first met ACDEF colleagues Daniel Pouakouyou and Catherine Butcher in 1998 and 2001 respectively while working in Cameroon. Outside work Gil enjoys studying and teaching karate, attempting triathlon and walking in the countryside with his family.
Ms Christine Tataw, Treasurer	Christine Tataw holds an MSc in social development planning and management from the University of Wales, Swansea and a first degree in sociology and anthropology from the University of Nigeria Nsukka. She also holds a diploma in social welfare and a diploma level 3 in developing counselling skills. Christine is a community development specialist. Working for the New York based Wildlife Conservation Society she spent five years managing a team of social science researchers at the Banyang Mbo Wildlife Sanctuary in South West Cameroon. With special interest in gender issues, Christine core skills are in participation and natural resource management, an interest she developed after attending a short course on the subject at the Centre of Development Studies at the University of Wales, Swansea in 2000. After relocating to Wales with her family, Christine changed direction in her career and specialised in domestic abuse, an area in which she is being working since 2004. During this period she has worked for the Black Association for Women Stepping Out and Swansea Women’s Aid at support and managerial levels. She is helping in developing and implementing strategies and also delivering domestic abuse legislation and policies that aim to empower families from Black Minority Ethnic backgrounds/mainstream communities fleeing from domestic abuse to regain their independence and be integrated into the community. Christine also sits on the board of The African Community Centre, Swansea where she provides strategic guidance and assistance.
Dr Daniel Pouakouyou, Secretary	Daniel Pouakouyou has worked relentlessly for the last 14 years on various aspects of biodiversity conservation and management. He has a blend of experience working with government bureaucracies, bilateral and multilateral conservation and development projects, consultancy companies and currently with an environmental NGO, Fauna & Flora International in Cambridge, UK. He is at his best when he works to bring these different groups together to tackle complex biodiversity conservation management and development issues. He particularly relishes the conservation ethos that combines the need to preserve viable and ecologically functional natural ecosystems and the species of fauna and flora within it in tandem with the livelihood concerns of the local human population. Daniel holds a PhD in tropical ecology from the University of Wales, Bangor and an Engineering degree in forestry and wildlife management from the University of Dschang (Cameroon). He is a member of the Governing Council of the Commonwealth Forestry Association and a member of the Community Based Natural Resource Management Network.
Ms Catherine Butcher, Board Member	Cathy has over 25 years experience of working in development issues, primarily in Africa. Cathy’s original training was in zoology and psychology and she has also holds degrees in animal nutrition and natural resource management. Her work has covered natural resource management, social development and the interface between these areas. Experience in this area has led to a belief that local people must be involved in finding solutions to the degradation of natural resources.Cathy has spent seven years living and working in Mtwara Region, Tanzania and 3 years in south-west Cameroon. In Tanzania she worked with local people, the Ministry of Livestock and the UK Overseas Development Administration to improve the management of indigenous sheep and goat breeds. In Cameroon she worked on the conservation and management of the Korup National Park and the buffer zones supported by the Government of Cameroon, the UK Department for International Development and the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF). Korup National Park is the first rainforest park in Cameroon and an area of special beauty and of particular conservation value having many endemic vertebrate, invertebrate and plant species. She now works as an independent consultant and has worked for a wide range of organisations to develop conservation and social development programmes with local people. She has in-depth experience of social and gender analysis, project design and monitoring and evaluation. In a voluntary capacity she has been a Board member for eight years for a development organisation based in Derbyshire (VillageAid) and she is currently involved in a number of local development issues. Cathy is also a painter and regularly exhibits in the Sheffield area. She is married and lives in Sheffield, UK.
Dr Marcelin Tonye Mahop,International Advisory Board	Dr Marcelin Tonye Mahop is a versatile researcher on development policy issues, capable of blending his background in biology and his academic and professional achievements in intellectual property law and policy and in environmental law and policy. After working from 1999 to 2002 in an environmental/biodiversity conservation institution in Cameroon (with coverage to Central Africa), Marcelin undertook his research based PhD studies at Queen Mary, University of London and earned the University of London doctorate in intellectual property law in 2007. He is interested in as varied intellectual property related issues as access to medicine, access to agricultural materials such as PVP protected seeds, impacts of patents on food security, the protection of traditional knowledge, the intricate interactions between patents and PVPs and scientific and commercial exploitation of biodiversity and traditional knowledge. From an environmental law perspective, Marcelin’s interests extend to biodiversity conservation, community based systems of management of biological resources and traditional knowledge, innovations and practices pertaining to sustainability, environmental and forestry laws and the governance of environmental issues. From a human rights perspective and without claiming any strong expertise in human rights law, Marcelin’s interests focus on the rights of indigenous and local communities over their biological and cultural assets. His book in the making expands on selected international, regional and national human rights related instruments to the extent that they encapsulate the concerns and interests of indigenous and local communities. Marcelin has extensive experience in field work, data gathering and report writing on a consultancy basis having consulted with international and national institutions on access and benefits sharing legislations and the commercial exploitation of biological resources, especially issues of biprospecting and biopiracy. Marcelin is a member of the IUCN Commission on Environmental Law, the IUCN special group on Forest and the Access and Benefit Sharing Expert Group of Africa (www.abs-africa.info).
Peter Mbile, International Technical Advisor, Volunteer	Peter’s work spanning over 20 years in west and central Africa, covers rural development, forest conservation, policy, economics, tenure and production systems. While in Wales, Bangor – UK Peter was intensely moved by the film “Korup, an Africa Rainforest”. To join the effort, Peter moved to Mundemba, Cameroon, as Agro forestry Subject Matter Specialist for the then Divisional Delegation of Agriculture. Two years later in 1992, he joined the Korup Project, where he worked for eight years; as a Rural Development, Conservation and GIS Officer. Hungry for knowledge, Peter Joined the World Agro forestry Center, then International Center for Research in Agro forestry-ICRAF. During 10 years of natural resources management research, Peter authored and co-authored 32 articles, book chapters, proceedings and reports. As Associate Scientist at ICRAF Peter became Senior Editor of the Electronic Journal of Information Systems in Developing countries, Section Editor of the Africa Journal of Information Systems and Facilitator / Moderator of participatory GIS and technologies. In 2010 Peter Joined the Washington DC-based Environment and Development think-Tank, the World Resources Institute WRI, as Senior Associate. At WRI Peter weighs-in on the centers efforts in West and Central Africa and leads a Project on forest carbon quantification and monitoring forest cover change in the Congo Basin. Peter holds Joint honours, BSc, in Forestry and Soil Science, from Bangor – UK, MSc in Resource Management from Edinburgh –UK and awaits defense of his PhD in Forest Economics and Management from the University of Ibadan Nigeria. Peter is married to Ayi Choupo Bokosah and has four Kids, Niyaba, Fese, Boseme and Ayi Jr.
Robin A Pouakouyou, Programme Development Officer, Volunteer	Robin is a young conservation scientist and has worked for four years in Cameroon on various aspects of environmental management and biodiversity conservation. At the Environment and Rural Development Foundation (ERUDEF), a Cameroonian NGO where she gained most of her experience, she worked at different positions on programme development and fundraising, coordination, management and strategic planning. Her fieldwork focused on aspects of natural resource management especially on forest surveys where she collected red data plant species for identification at Kew Gardens. She also coordinated tree planting activities in schools and communities to restore degraded landscapes, improve crop productivity, reduce the rate of deforestation and mitigate climate change. She also assisted in environmental education in schools and communities in the Western Highland Region of Cameroon. Since relocating to the United Kingdom over a year ago, Robin is directly involved in ACDEF institutional development including compliance with the requirements of the Companies and the UK Charity Commission. She also contributes to the development of the organisation fundraising strategy for statutory and non statutory sources, search for potential donors and drafting of funding proposals. In addition to her strong background in Tropical Botany, Robin has attended a number of professional training courses in Cameroon, United States and the United Kingdom on Human Resource Management, environmental restoration techniques and biodiversity communication. Robin holds a BSc in Botany from the University of Buea, Cameroon. She currently lives in Cambridge, United Kingdom with her family and enjoys walking, gardening, watching movies/documentaries, and travelling in her spare time.