Seacology - Field Representatives

SEACOLOGY FIELD REPRESENTATIVES

Seacology is supported by a group of field representatives that live throughout the world. These men and women are responsible for finding potential Seacology projects and submitting them to staff for review before they are then presented to the board for approval. Additionally, our field representatives are responsible for monitoring and reporting on the successes and failures of current Seacology projects in their region. To contact any of Seacology's field representatives, please email: .

Africa

Dishon Lionel Murage	East Africa Dishon is our first field representative in this region, and will help expand Seacology programs in the islands off the East African coast. Dishon has a master's degree in Zoology from the University of Nairobi, Kenya. His professional experiences have included extensive work with local communities to promote conservation and sustainable livelihoods. He is currently marine and coastal resources program coordinator for the East African Wildlife Society.

Linda Schonknecht and Mike Markovina	South Africa Mike has always had a passion for the ocean; ask anyone who has ever met him. He has grown up with his head literally and figuratively beneath the waves, displaying a natural ability with all things nautical and aquatic. He holds an MSc in Ichthyology and Fisheries Science and is currently working in East Africa with the Smart Fish project. Linda is a freelance photographer and writer on a mission with a passion for all things environmental. Together they spent the past two years trekking across the globe in a 4x4, filming and photographing people, and projects working to improve the marine environment, leading to the establishment of Moving Sushi, a marine conservation project and expeditions group. When they are not pulling airport luggage tags off their backpacks or finding ways to work with and promote marine conservation, you can find them in Cape Town plotting their next foray to discover something new and exciting in obscure places.

CARIBBEAN/LATIN AMERICA

Mykl Clovis Fuller	Antigua & Barbuda, Anguilla, and St. Kitts Mykl has worked on environmental conservation projects in the Caribbean for the last eight years and is now based on the island of Antigua as an independent consultant. She works primarily in the areas of wildlife conservation, sustainable tourism and project management, and is an active volunteer with local NGOs and community organizations. She holds a master's degree in Coastal Management from York University, Toronto.

Lindsey McCoy	The Bahamas A life-long visitor to The Bahamas, Lindsey moved there full time in 2004 with her Bahamian husband, Matthew. Soon after, she began work as Executive Director of Friends of the Environment, a small environmental nonprofit based in Abaco, in the northern Bahamas. During her time there, FRIENDS renovated an old church into an Education Center, started a school based education program and worked to create two new National Parks. She left a few years later when their son was born. In her more than ten years working in the nonprofit sector, Lindsey has also worked for a Community Foundation and as a nonprofit consultant. She holds a Master's in Nonprofit Management from Indiana University's School of Public & Environmental Affairs. She and her husband also have an environmental documentary company, Loggerhead Productions.

Claudio Delgado	Chile Claudio Delgado earned his bachelor’s degree in Marine Biology from the Universidad Austral de Chile and studied the Integrated Management of Coastal Zones at Guadalajara University in Mexico. Since 1998, he has led various projects concerning the conservation biology of coastal zones. From 1999 to 2003, Claudio was coordinator of the Biodiversity Program for Comité Nacional Pro Defensa de la Fauna y Flora’s Valdivia regional office, leading private land conservation initiatives and implementing the first private protected coastal area in the region. In 2003, he founded Conservación Marina, a Chilean NGO (nonprofit organization) promoting the protection and sustainable use of marine biodiversity along the Chilean coast. As the organization’s director, Claudio has led conservation projects related to marine mammal research, conservation of migratory shorebirds on Chiloé Island, and planning for the sustainable use and conservation for Mocha Island. He has lead nine conservation planning processes, and has also trained many professionals and conservation practitioners from private and governmental agencies in Chile, Uruguay, Brazil and Cuba. Claudio’s areas of expertise include biodiversity conservation, ecological surveying, strategic planning and marine protected areas. He lives in Valdivia with his two children and wife. Besides being a committed conservationist, Claudio loves hiking, mountain biking and sea kayaking.

Tyrone Buckmire	Grenada With almost 20 years as an activist, advocating for child rights, rural community development and environmental protection, Tyrone has had extensive experience working in Grenada and regionally. He first worked with the Grenada Planned Parenthood Association for 10 years, and subsequently worked as Coordinator of the Inter-Agency Group of Development Organizations and the Grenada National Coalition on the Rights of the Child, umbrella agencies whose members grappled with a host of social issues, primary among them poverty alleviation, education and training, domestic violence and social/legal assistance. He trained extensively in relevant regional and international projects, with internships in the US, UK, Canada and Europe, and also served on various youth expert panels within UN-specialized agencies and in the international Planned Parenthood and adolescent health field. More recently, Buckmire served as the Manager of Rare Enterprises, Grenada from October 2005 to December 2008, during which time he successfully set up community based ecotourism enterprises that link Grenada's tourism industry to its natural environment, and contribute directly to conservation projects. Buckmire is also the Secretary/Executive Officer of Grenada Fund for Conservation, Inc. Tyrone is married, with three children, and enjoys reading and creative writing.

Krishna Desai	Jamaica Krishna is an attorney-at-law and a natural scientist with a post-graduate degree in marine management. He spent eight years working for the Government of Jamaica as their technical adviser on coastal issues and during that time led numerous inter-disciplinary teams responsible for natural resource management and regulating physical development. Krishna has spent a number of years working as an environmental consultant where he used his experience to help formulate policy and to contribute to management plans while he studied law. After a short stint in London, where he worked in sustainable development for an inner London borough, he is now back in Jamaica where he is working as a litigator for a major law firm in downtown Kingston. Krishna enjoys photography, SCUBA diving, playing squash, and camping out with friends.

Lenin Riquelme	Panama Lenin has a Political Science Degree from the University of Iowa and a Master's in Latin American Studies/Conservation & Development from the University of Florida. During his 15-year long career he has worked in several posts relevant to environmental conservation and rural development in Panama. He worked for USAID/Panama office as environmental specialist for the Panama Canal Watershed and was Director for Environmental Policy/Planning at the Government´s National Environmental Authority (ANAM). He also worked as an environmental advisor for The Nature Conservancy/Panama Program and as Institutiona Development Officer at Panama's National Association for the Conservation of Nature. In 2005 he decided to work more independently and founded Fundación Conservacion, Naturaleza y Vida (CONAVI), an NGO that focuses its activities in coastal conservation and indigenous peoples' rights. In recent years he has conducted research on sea turtles and the Antillean Manatee, an activity that together with his advocacy work has led to the reinforcement of conservation laws protecting these species as well as to the creation of protected sanctuaries such as the La Marinera Special Management Zone. Through CONAVI, he assisted indigenous Embera Indigenous Peoples Congress on achieving legal recognition of their traditional land rights in 2009. Most of his time off-work he dedicates to traveling to little-known nature spots and communities with his wife Dayana and daughters Lia and Mileny.

INDIAN OCEAN


Vineeta Hoon	India Vineeta has a Ph.D in cultural geography and has done research on traditional lifestyles of indigenous people in remote areas. She is the recipient of the Asia Pacific Post doctoral fellowship from the East West Centre, Hawaii, the Freda Bage fellowship of the Australian federation of university women and a Norwegian Research Council Research Fellowship. Her quest to understand traditional knowledge in sustainable utilization of ecological resources has lead her to live amongst the Trans-Himalayan nomads, Lakshadweep Islanders, and the Sámi reindeer herders in the Arctic. She is the author of the book, Living on the Move, the Bhotiyas of the Kumaon Himalayas, (Sage:1996). She is a founder trustee of the Centre for Action Research on Environment, Science and Society (CARESS). This was set up out to help stem the rapid loss of cultural and natural biodiversity and focuses on the revival of traditional values amongst island and mountain people through awareness and integration of community based livelihoods with conservation. To integrate marine examples in environment education, she has co-authored The Children's Perception of the Environment: a teachers toolkit for coastal and marine areas in Asia, published in 2009, by IUCN. Vineeta has been at the heart of coral reef affairs involving the island communities in the South Asia region. since 1997. She has worked as consultant for the GCRMN, CORDIO, ICRAN, IUCN and is the lead author of the SOCMON SA guidelines and Regional Coordinator for SOCMON South Asia.

Dr. Erik Patel	Madagascar Erik has been working in Madagascar every year since 2000, where he has been studying the behavioral biology and conservation of one of the most critically endangered primates in Madagascar, the silky sifaka (Propithecus candidus). He earned his PhD from Cornell University and his Masters degree from the University of California at Berkeley in Anthropology. His conservation program at Marojejy National Park, part of a newly inaugurated World Heritage Site, works in collaboration with several local communities in activities such as research training, biodiversity monitoring, and conservation education in local schools. The Madagascar Institute for the Conservation of Tropical Environments (MICET) has facilitated his work at Marojejy National Park, Makira Natural Park, and Ialatsara Private Reserve for many years. Erik began working with Seacology as its Madagascar field representative in 2009.

MICRONESIA

Simon Ellis

Micronesia

Simon has degrees in marine biology and fisheries from Edinburgh and Louisiana State Universities and has worked in this field since 1990. He moved to Micronesia in 1997 and has travelled extensively in the region supporting conservation and aquaculture projects. From 2002-2006 he was the marine program advisor for the Conservation Society of Pohnpei, a leading grass roots NGO. Currently, he is director of the Marine and Environmental Research Institute of Pohnpei, an NGO dedicated to developing sustainable aquaculture in rural communities in Micronesia. Through this work he is able to travel through the Marshall Islands, Federated States of Micronesia and Palau interacting with conservation groups which has been an ideal way to work with communities on conservation projects. Simon has been the Seacology representative for Micronesia since 2004.

PACIFIC OCEAN

Jose Angel Sanchez-Pacheco

Mexico

After earning a degree in Marine Biology from the University of Baja California Sur, México, Jose Angel began doing research on sea birds, coastal lagoons, islands, fisheries, sea turtles and gray whales. He has been supporting the creation of Natural Protected Areas in Mexico beginning with El Vizcaíno in Baja California Sur, one of the first and the largest Biosphere Reserves of Mexico. Since then his achievements include co-founding and directing Grupo de Ecologia y Conservacion de Islas, the highly effective and award-winning Mexican sister organization of the international NGO Island Conservation (US, Mexico, Canada). During his tenure as director, Jose initiated and oversaw projects to protect and restore more than 25 Mexican islands by forming NPAs/MPAs on and around them, resulting in the legal protection of the natural resources and wildlife species that live there. Jose is also co-founder and director of Instituto SummerTree A.C., the Mexican branch of SummerTree institute of California. In this position, he created programs to develop sustainable economic opportunities in remote communities of Baja California peninsula, and conservation activities around whale watching and ecotours to the coastal lagoons, islands and desert. Currently, Jose is co-owner of Cedros Outdoor Adventures, a company that promotes ecotours, sportfishing and whale watching with the goal of promoting environmentally-friendly economic opportunities in remote communities on the Baja California peninsula and islands.

POLYNESIA/MELANESIA

Jaime Short	Cook Islands Jaime works for the Cook Island's National Environment Service as the Hazardous Substances Projects officer; she is also a member of the Rarotonga-based Muri Environment Care Group, an environmental NGO with the goal of improving the lagoon of Muri. She is of New Zealand and Cook Island descent, and her father's family is known in the Cook Islands for being prominent community, political, traditional and religious leaders. (Her grandfather, Sir Apenera Short, served as Deputy Prime Minister for the Cook Islands, and later became the Head of State) Jaime holds Bachelor's Degrees from Auckland University in Physical Geography and Anthropological Science.

Harry and Jackie Powell	Fiji Jacqueline (Jackie) Powell, Bank Clerk, Travel Consultant, Administration Officer CCOP/SOPAC, Secretary Fiji Times, Sponsorship Secretary Save the Children Fund Fiji Personal Officer US Embassy, Suva, Restaurant Owner. Retired 1999. Voluntary worker with the Beeve Foundation and other visiting specialists at the Savusavu Hospital, Board member of the Savusavu Hospital. Harry L. Powell, Royal Corps of Signals (UK) 1961-74. Past member of the Society of Radio Technicians, Associate Member of the Institute of Administrative Management (UK), Radio Engineer with International Aeradio Ltd, Director of Sales/Engineer TecAir Ltd, Regional Sales Manager AWA New Zealand Limited, CEO AWA New Zealand Limited, Managing Director Compac AWA Fiji. Past President of Rotary, Board Member Suva Hospital. Retired 1999. Voluntary worker for the Beeve Foundation in Savusavu.

Hinano Teavai-Murphy	French Polynesia Hinano, who is fluent in Tahitian, English and French, is the associate director of the UC Berkeley Gump Research Station on the island of Moorea. She is responsible for creating and overseeing the cultural and environmental outreach programs of the Atitia Center. Hinano is also president of Te Pu Atitia, a local nonprofit organization with the dual purposes of preserving the environment and Polynesian culture of French Polynesia. Prior to that she was the special advisor to the Minister of Education with particular focus on Tahitian language programs.

Sam Moko	Papua New Guinea Sam Moko is from Kui Village in the Huon Gulf District, Morobe Province in Papua New Guinea (PNG) and is currently Greenpeace's forest campaigner in PNG. He joined Greenpeace after working as a conservation and community development officer with the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) and as a community and health educator with the Foundation for People and Community Development Inc. (FPCD). Sam originally trained in Theatre Arts at the University of PNG. He started out working in community theatre projects for FPCD - using story telling and theatre to educate people about health issues like HIV/Aids, Malaria and TB. He has also worked as a logistician ensuring health supplies were delivered to remote communities in Bougainville for the Australian Foundation for Asia & Pacific People. As a community development worker with WWF, Sam ran workshops with landowners on sustainable management of their forest and alternatives to selling logging concessions such as butterfly and vanilla farming. Sam has been helping out with Seacology's Bosavi project since 2003 on a volunteer basis. In 2008, Sam was officially named as Seacology's field representative in PNG.

Cedric Schuster	Samoa Cedric holds a bachelor's degree in Geography from the University of Victoria and a Master's degree in Sustainable International Development from Brandeis University. For the past five years, Cedric has been one of three directors of the Pacific Environment Consultants Ltd, a group that specializes in environmental planning, natural resource management, and ecologically sustainable development. For seven years Cedric worked for the Samoan government's Division of Environment and Conservation, first as a National Parks Officer and later as Head of the Biodiversity Conservation Unit. He also serves as Pacific Coordinator of the Global Greengrants Fund. Cedric's areas of expertise include biodiversity conservation, ecological surveying, and strategic planning.

Sione Faka'osi	Tonga Since March 2007, Sione has been the Executive Director for the Tonga Community Development Trust, a nonprofit organization working with disadvantaged communities to foster self reliance. Tonga Trust is implementing a number of community-based projects, ranging from health, water, and sanitation to disaster preparedness, environmental protection, climate change adaptation, good governance, democracy and voter education. Prior to joining Tonga Trust, Sione was a National Project Coordinator in Tonga's Department of Environment for two consecutive regional projects. Firstly, the Ha'apai Conservation Area Project under the South Pacific Biodiversity Conservation Program (SPBCP) from 1995-2001. Secondly, the Nukuhetulu Waste Reduction Pilot Project under the Strategic Program for the International Waters of the South Pacific (IWP) from 2002 to 2007. Both programs (SPBCP and IWP) used a community-based participatory approach to conservation and were funded by GEF, implemented by UNDP and executed by SPREP. In 1994 Sione obtained a Master of Arts in Sociology from the Australian National University, Canberra, Australia.

Josiah Kuatpen	Vanuatu Josiah Kuatpen is from Latap Village, Southwest Tanna, Tafea Province, Vanuatu. He has a young son named Jaykay Kuatpen. Josiah has a double degree from the University of the South Pacific in Banking/Finance and Public Administration. He is currently the VFIU Financial Analyst working for the Attorney General in the State Law Office of Vanuatu, working to insure that all financial institutions are compliant with the Federal Transaction Reporting Act. Prior to that, he was employed by Westpac Banking Corporation, the National Bank of Vanuatu, the Reserve Bank of Vanuatu, and the Ministry of Finance and Economic Management. Josiah is a team leader and village representative to the Department of Forestry (Vanuatu Government) in overseeing a reforestation project launched in his home village in 2007. He loves soccer and has been playing the sport most of his life.

SOUTHEAST ASIA

Arnaz Mehta	Indonesia Born in Japan and raised in Canada, Arnaz has lived in small coastal villages throughout the remote regions of the Indonesian Archipelago since 1993. She has been immersed in coral reef research, environmental education, nature tourism and since 2001, island conservation work with Seacology. Arnaz has authored two books, Bunaken National Park Natural History Guide and The Natural History of Komodo National Park and is noted for being involved in the discovery of the first Indonesian Coelacanth in 1998. Arnaz is currently based in Bali with her three children and marine biologist husband.

Irman Meilandi	Indonesia An environmental activist, journalist, and farmer, Irman lives in his home village of Mandalamekar where his conservation efforts earned him the 2011 Seacology Prize. He holds a Bachelor of Economics from Sam Ratulangi University, in North Sulawesi, and worked for Conservation International in the Raja Ampat Islands as a campaigner and educator. Today he helps rural communities like Mandalamekar create resource management and cost-sharing plans to protect their natural resources. He also serves as Chairman of the Indonesian Community Radio Network.

Ferdinand Marcelo	Philippines Ferdie worked in the Philippine Senate from 1998 to 2004, assisting Technical Working Groups on the Senate Committee on the Environment, and saw the passage of landmark laws, such as the "Philippine Clean Air Act of 1999" and the "Ecological Solid Waste Management Act of 2000." A SCUBA instructor since 1990, Ferdie teaches SCUBA every now and then, while managing the family farm in Tanay, Rizal Province. He holds a bachelor's degree in Economics and attended the College of Law at the University of the Philippines for a few years. Ferdie also keeps a blog which, among other things, discusses his visits to Seacology projects.