SPROUT PARTNERS

John Kamanga | Kenya

Winner of the Tusk Award for Conservation in Africa, John has a profound understanding of the challenges of coexistence between wildlife and people. He was raised as a Maasai pastoralist in the Southern Rift valley…

  • …he was fortunate to have had both a traditional pastoralist upbringing and also a solid grounding in formal education with degrees in both Community Development and Anthropology. Twenty years ago, he was elected as leader of his Maasai community (the people of Olkiramatian) and was able to support the development of their community conservancy, and supporting governance systems before handing over office last year. Over twelve years ago, he co-founded SORALO, in order to help many more communities facing the same issues of land security, livelihoods and living with wildlife.

Bernadette Plair | Trinidad and Tobago

Founder of the Centre for the Rescue of Endangered Species of Trinidad & Tobago, Professor at Miami University, Board of Trustees of University Women in Science, Society of Plant Biologists, STEM Task Force.

  • Besides being a world-renowned researcher and conservationist, Bernadette is champion for wildlife in her native Trinidad, where she lead the effort to reintroduce extirpated blue-and-gold macaws. Bernadette was featured in the documentary “The Blue and the Gold”

Mercy Njeri Waithira | Kenya

Mercy has been a wildlife ecologist, conservation educator, conservation researcher, and is currently, she is leading the Information, Training and Communication thematic area in SORALO.

  • Mercy is passionate about working with communities in maintaining healthy ecosystems for people and wildlife. She managed projects focusing on endangered species protection, habitat restoration, conservation outreach programmes and socio ecological resilience programmes. Academically, Mercy has a BSc. Wildlife Management from University of Nairobi and an MPhil. Conservation Leadership from University of Cambridge. Some of the conservation organisations she has worked with include ZSL, Ol Pejeta Conservancy and Birdlife International.

Samantha du Toit | Kenya

Sam lives and works in Kenya’s South Rift Valley establishing an ecological monitoring program for the Magadi region and helping the local Maasai community establish community-based research for conservation.

  • This involves helping to establish a South Rift Resource Centre and train local community youths in resource assessment and data collection. Having been born and raised in Kenya, Samantha has always held a passion for wildlife and as she grew up developed a keen interest in working with the people who live alongside it, and has worked with Dr. David Western on learning about the relationship between wildlife and people since she graduated from Bristol University in 2002 with an undergraduate degree in Zoology and Psychology, and is a doctoral candidate in Conservation Ecology. She has also worked with Dr Western in conducting the first major audit of Kenya’s wildlife and presented this information at a recent Wildlife Policy Review workshop. She also writes for NOMAD magazine.

Roger Neckles | Trinidad and Tobago

Born in Trinidad and raised and schooled in London, England, Wildlife Photographer/Naturalist Roger Neckles’ award-winning photographs have graced the pages of many publications, including National Geographic…

  • … Natural History and Audubon. Roger also has a passion for sea turtles and partners with Sprout while we are in Trinidad working with the leatherback sea turtles.

Garl Harrold | Everglades

Garl is an expert guide in south Florida and the Everglades. Founder of Garl’s Coastal Kayaking, he has worked on films and projects with National Geographic, CNN, New York Times and more.

Joel Njonjo Kamango | Kenya

Joel Njonjo Kamango graduated from the Kenya Institute of Management. He is a researcher for the Baboon Project, studying baboon behavior and social interactions. He also manages the Lale’enok Resource Centre and Maasai conservation education programs.

Guy Western | Kenya

Guy helped establish the lion conservation program Rebuilding the Pride. He is a graduate of University of California Santa Barbara and Oxford University. Recently completing his PhD, Guy combines his experience and expertise…

  • … to lead the SORALO Conserving Coexistence programme, where the teams of the community Game Scouts and Rebuilding the Pride join together to help communities to coexist with wildlife across the SORALO landscape.

Sean Robinson | Trinidad & Tobago

Sean Robinson is a Dive Master/Instructor with 35 years experience and more than 20,000 dives. He is a pioneer in the dive industry in Trinidad & Tobago, and an expert in marine geology, marine biology, and the marine history of the islands.

COMMUNITY GROUPS

SORALO www.soralo.org

Olkiramatian Reto Women’s Group https://laleenok.wordpress.com/tag/womens-group-2/

Lale’enok Resource Centre https://laleenok.wordpress.com/

Community Game Scouts