Dominique Gonçalves
Elephant Ecology Project Manager
Gorongosa National Park (Mozambique)
Dr Dominique Gonçalves is a Mozambican ecologist who manages the Gorongosa Elephant Ecology Project in Gorongosa National Park, Mozambique. She conducts a long-term monitoring of Gorongosa’s recovering elephant population looking on their habitat choices and its implications on human elephant conflict and coexistence. Dominique’s work is a holistic blend of ecology, behaviour and conservation, and focus on build coexistence between communities and elephants throughout a shared landscape. A passionate advocate of girls’ education to prevent early marriage, Gonçalves also supports the park’s Girls’ Club program through the role models initiative. Dominique has an M.Sc. in Conservation Biology and a Ph.D. in Biodiversity Management from the University of Kent’s Durrell Institute of Conservation and Ecology.
Ara Monadjem
Professor
Department of Biological Sciences,
University of Eswatini (Eswatini)
Professor Ara Monadjem is a biodiversity specialist with a focus on the ecology and conservation of African mammals and birds, and a particular passion for bats. Specializing in field-based studies, his objectives often include obtaining biological and taxonomic insights on rare and threatened species, as well as understanding the ecological roles and ecosystem functions these species provide in natural and agricultural landscapes. Over the past 30 years, Professor Monadjem has worked in remote locations across the African continent, including the rainforests of tropical Africa and the savannas of Southern and East Africa, as well as Madagascar. Additionally, he maintains long-term ecological field sites in Eswatini. He has published widely, including the handbook “Bats of Southern and Central Africa.”
Rosie Trevelyan
Director
Tropical Biology Association (UK)
Rosie Trevelyan is the Director of the Tropical Biology Association (TBA) – an NGO that provides tailor-made training to give people the skills they need to solve real-world conservation problems. TBA has offices in Cambridge. UK, and Nairobi Kenya. The TBA has trained over 2,800 conservation scientists and practitioners from 90 countries world-wide – many of whom are now leading conservationists. Recently the Tropical Biology Association collaborated with the University of Porto through their TropiBio project to deliver a field course in Guinea-Bissau for 21 aspiring conservation scientists from Angola, Cabo Verde, Guinea-Bissau, Mozambique, Portugal, São Tomé e Principe and Spain. Rosie has a PhD from the University of Oxford, is a founding member of the Cambridge Conservation Initiative and is an organiser of the annual Student Conference on Conservation Science.
Mohamed Henriques
Researcher
Department of Knowledge Infrastructures and BirdEyes, Centre for Global Ecological Change, University of Groningen (Netherlands)
Dr Henriques is a Guinea-Bissau spatial ecologist and conservation biologist passionate about understanding how migratory birds are impacted by our rapidly changing world. His research interests zoom in on the East Atlantic Flyway and West Africa, anchored in both global and local-scale approaches. There, he investigates how birds’ shifting spatial-temporal patterns can relate to landscape-scale changes in habitat traits and ecological processes. By weaving together satellite remote sensing, tracking data, and field observations of foraging behaviour, he hopes to learn from the birds about how threats like climate change and human-induced pressures are changing ecosystems, and what needs to be done to protect and restore key sites. Dr. Henriques’s commitment extends beyond scientific discovery; he advocates for equitable and inclusive knowledge systems, fostering collaborations and knowledge transfer that bridge West African and European expertise.