Tim Davenport: COUNTRY DIRECTOR

Dr Tim Davenport received a BSc (Hons) in zoology and a PhD in veterinary science from the University of Leeds, UK. During a 25 year career he has lived and worked in four African nations, surveyed 90 African forests, discovered new species to science, trained hundreds of African scientists, conservationists, wardens and rangers, and been responsible for the designation of new national parks and reserves on both sides of the continent. Tim left the UK in 1992 and moved to Uganda to work for the Ugandan Forest Department, where he led field teams studying all the country’s 66 natural forests for their biodiversity. During these surveys he identified Uganda’s most northerly population of chimpanzees on the Sudanese border. He co-designed the national forest conservation priority strategy based on the data collected, and the methods employed and results were widely published. Tim subsequently supervised a series of postgraduate students at Makerere University before working for Uganda National Parks where he designed and set up the Ecological Monitoring Programs for Bwindi and Mgahinga Gorilla National Parks, still in use today. Moving to Cameroon in 1997, Tim joined the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) to run their Lac Lobéké Project, primarily to set up a new national park. He wrote the official government gazettement for the new park and instigated collaborative management in support of indigenous Ba’aka rights. Whilst carrying out biological and socioeconomic surveys he also exposed corruption in illegal timber, bushmeat and ivory trade within the Lobéké landscape. 

Tim moved to Tanzania for WCS in 1999, initially to run the Lake Rukwa Integrated Project. A year later he set up the Southern Highlands Conservation Program (SHCP) to protect key mountain species and habitats. A decade and a half on, the program is Tanzanian run with a staff of 40, and a string of research and conservation successes. He designed the SHCP around research, protected area management and community conservation. One of the first achievements was an investigation into the illegal trade in orchids across southern Tanzania. This received considerable international attention and enabled Tim to play a key role in the gazettement of the Kitulo Plateau as a National Park, the first park in tropical Africa designated primarily for plants, especially wildflowers.

As part of the SHCP Tim led the first biodiversity inventories across southwest Tanzania. It was during these surveys in June 2003, that Tim and team discovered the kipunji, the first new genus of African monkey for 83 years. He led the description of the new genus in the journal Science and called it Rungwecebus kipunji named after Mt Rungwe, the volcano on which they first saw the animal. Tim led a WCS census that showed that the kipunji is critically endangered and he used this science to get Mt Rungwe designated as a new Nature Reserve. He continues to oversee research on kipunji ecology having initiated a long-term monitoring program with a habituated group. Tim has also co-discovered a new species of snake (which was named Matilda’s Horned Viper, Atheris matildae, after his elder daughter), as well as at least a dozen other new species including frogs, reptiles and mammals. 

Tim’s science in Tanzania has raised the profile of neglected areas and species, redefined the boundaries of Biodiversity Hotspots and helped re-assess biogeography and its conservation implications. Tim and his teams censused an unrecorded chimpanzee subpopulation in southern Tanganyika and continue to work to establish a chimpanzee reserve there. He puts great emphasis on community conservation, especially on education and he instituted environmental education (in-curriculum) across southern Tanzania. The WCS education program now reaches a million people nationwide. Environment committees, working groups, wildlife clubs and natural resource fora have also been set up. Recognising the need for reforestation programs, Tim designed a tree nursery program and 3 million indigenous trees have now been raised and planted.

Tim became the first Tanzania Country Director for WCS in 2006. In this role he has built, funded and managed a broad suite of conservation and research programs across the country, turning the Tanzania Program into one of the largest WCS programs in Africa. Landscape programs include the Tarangire-Simanjiro Ecosystem in northern Tanzania, the Ruaha-Katavi Landscape in central Tanzania, the forests of the Zanzibar Archipelago, and the Southern Highlands. Recently he also initiated a marine program with an emphasis on the conservation of whales and dolphins, and building dialogue with natural gas exploration companies. He is about to initiate a shark conservation project.

Tim has also been involved in other conservation projects. For example, he led the joint WCS / GoT expedition in 2001 to collect endangered Kihansi Spray Toads forex-situ breeding in the US and co-designed the first national survey of dugongs in 2002. In Malawi in 2003, he designed and initiated an ecological monitoring program on Mt Mulanje for the World Bank. In 2009 he documented and described all wildlife corridors in Tanzania, research that has become invaluable as agricultural growth expands. In addition to the chimpanzee census in 2005 and kipunji census in 2008, Tim led the first census and conservation analysis of the Ufipa red colobus in 2009, as well as the Zanzibar red colobus in 2015. He led a five year study to document the distribution and status of all primates in Tanzania, compiling the first annotated checklist in the process in 2012, and designing a innovative priority setting system he called ‘Primate Priority Areas’.

Tim is currently trying to address two equally challenging crises that are overwhelming Tanzania’s unique natural heritage. Uncontrolled trafficking of live animals for the international pet trade, especially amphibians, reptiles, fish and birds, is devastating Tanzania’s biodiversity. Meanwhile, the on-going ivory crisis has resulted in 60,000 elephants being poached in Tanzania since 2009. Having set up elephant protection projects and secured funding from the US government and others, Tim continues to lead WCS projects in Tanzania to try and tackle this deeply complex situation.

Tim has written over 100 scientific papers, 3 books and numerous popular articles. He sits on the African Primate, Amphibian and Pangolin IUCN Species Specialist Committees. Tim’s photographs have been widely published and he uses his images to raise awareness of the many conservation challenges facing Africa. He has a butterfly (Hypolycaena davenporti), a moth (Janegoodallia davenporti) and a frog, Davenport’s Reed Frog (Hyperolius davenporti) named after him. Tim and team were featured in 2016 in a 30 minute CNN special http://edition.cnn.com/2016/04/26/africa/kipunji-monkey-tanzania. He was awarded the Parker-Gentry Prize for Conservation in 2008, and was nominated for the prestigious Indianapolis Prize 2016, and he was awarded the IERA Africa Conservation Award in 2016.

Daniela De Luca: TECHNICAL ADVISOR
Daniela holds a degree in zoology, wildlife ecology and management from the University of Rome and a PhD in behavioural ecology from the University of London and the Institute of the Zoological Society of London, UK. She moved to in 1999 Tanzania to manage a conservation and development project around Lake Rukwa, before joining WCS to carry out carnivore research and conservation across Southern Tanzania. During a camera trapping study in the Udzungwa National Park she re-discovered the Lowe’s servaline genet and recorded a new distribution site for the Jackson’s mongoose. She conducted a long term carnivore monitoring project in the Mt. Rungwe- Kitulo landscape and initiated and conducted the first Clawless and Spot necked otters project in Mt Rungwe and Sao Hill. She has been involved in many aspects of research design, data collection and analysis of endangered mammalian species such as Dugong, Chimpanzees, Kipunji and Zanzibar red colobus in addition to capacity building of Tanzanian graduates.

Said Abdallah Fakih: OFFICE & LOGISTICS MANAGER
Said is botanist and a keen field researcher. He joined WCS as the Assistant Director of the Zanzibar Forest Project, focusing his efforts on the conservation and sustainable use of natural resources by local communities. During this time he was actively involved in Red colobus monitoring, the Red colobus Census and the collection of botanical specimens and ethno botanical information in Jozani - Chwaka Bay National Park. He holds an Advanced Diploma in Plant Conservation from the Forestry Training Institute and the Tropical Pesticide Research Institute, Arusha. 

Katya Kalashnikova: OPERATIONS MANAGER
Katya completed her degree in biology, specialization biochemistry, at Chernyshevskiy Saratov State University, Russia. She was part of the managing team of the Russia-Tanzania Cultural Centre in Tanzania for 4 years. Prior to joining WCS Katya was the General Manager of one of Zanzibar’s most successful luxury hotels. She speaks KiSwahili and is very familiar with the many challenges of Tanzanian labour and employment laws.

Mo Khimji: ASSISTANT OPERATIONS MANAGER

Hamisi Idrissa Sadallah: COUNTRY FINANCE MANAGER 
Hamisi holds an MBA in Finance and Banking from Mzumbe University in Morogoro and CPA1 from Dar es Salaam. Before joining WCS, he worked with the Family Planning Association of Tanzania as a System Internal Auditor, Area Manager Area Finance and Administrative Officer and Area Accountant. He also worked with Tanzania Central Freight Bureau (SUMATRA) as Assistant Accountant and was dealing with foreign agency’s disbursement accounts. He has been working for WCS Tanzania Program as a Country Finance Manager since 2008.

Sarah Markes: ARTIST / DESIGNER / COMMUNICATIONS COORDINATOR
Sarah was trained as a graphic designer and illustrator at Central St Martins College of Art in the UK. After working as a book illustrator she moved to Malawi and began focussing on developing creative education and awareness raising projects around public health and environmental issues in East and Southern Africa. She has trained several young designers and illustrators and created exhibitions in Europe and Africa to highlight threatened natural and cultural heritage. She first worked with WCS in 2014 co-creating an exhibition to showcase the flora and fauna of Kitulo National Park. Her artwork has been auctioned in the USA and Tanzania to raise funds for Tanzanian conservation. She joined WCS in 2015 to focus on environmental education and conservation awareness raising.