WCPA Steering Committee Members

Thematic Vice Chair, World Heritage
Alfred is the Director of International Policy at the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS). He has worked in conservation for more than 14 years, and currently focuses on global or multilateral policy frameworks addressing biodiversity, protected areas and OECMs, wildlife trade, migratory species, pandemics of zoonotic origin, climate change, food systems, and more. He has engaged with more than 30 World Heritage sites through the work of WCS, with wider experience through engagement on other sites and on cross-cutting issues with World Heritage decision-making fora. He co-chairs working groups convened under the WCPA on topics such as OECMs, and he has also co-authored papers in scientific and policy journals on protected and conserved areas, forest integrity, and more. Alfred holds a B.A. in environmental studies and literature from Connecticut College and a Masters in public policy and administration, focusing on international environmental law and governance, from Columbia University.

Thematic Vice Chair, Scaling Natural Solutions. Brent A. Mitchell serves as a Vice Chair of IUCN World Commission on Protected Areas and is Senior Vice President of QLF Atlantic Center for the Environment. Under the theme of Scaling Natural Solutions, Brent manages WCPA’s response to the 30x30 biodiversity challenge on behalf of IUCN, the largest conservation alliance in the world. Brent began his career living in the Caribbean and Latin America, contributing to the development of the first national parks in Haiti and the Turks and Caicos Islands, and conducting field research in wildlife ecology in the Dominican Republic and Venezuela. After working at the nexus of nature conservation and civil society in Central and Eastern Europe in the early 1990s, and later in the Balkans, his career took him to other regions of the world. Particularly interested in governance in conservation and environmental issues, he led WCPA’s Specialist Group on Privately Protected Areas and Nature Stewardship for its first 14 years. He is a founding member of the National Park Service Stewardship Institute, a collaborative for change helping to move U.S. protected area management in new directions.

Regional Vice Chair, Europe. Erika Stanciu started to work in and for protected areas after 12 years of activity in forest management. She contributed to the establishment of the protected area management system in Romania as the first national park director.

WCPA Regional Vice Chair, West and Central Africa. Regional Project Coordinator for the Central African Forest Observatory, with a focus on monitoring protected and conserved areas, including marine areas. Since 2021, I have been Regional Vice-Chair of the World Commission on Protected Areas for Central and West Africa. I work closely with other protected area networks, particularly those in West Africa. Through the Observatory’s activities, there is a significant contribution to updating the WDPA with data from the 10 countries of Central Africa. I help to monitor and implement the new global biodiversity framework by supporting countries with their reporting. I am involved in the development and updating of technical guidelines on Other Effective Conservation Measures (OECM), the Green List of Protected and Conserved Areas, and the management effectiveness of Protected and Conserved Areas.

I hold the position of Director of Impact for Conserve Global, providing strategic oversight for business information systems, monitoring and impact evaluation, and scientific management. I sit on various national and international advisory and technical committees: I am the Regional Vice Chair for East and Southern Africa for IUCN WCPA and also an active member of the IUCN SSC Conservation Planning Specialist Group, the Canid Specialist Group, and the SSC/CEESP Biodiversity and Family Planning Task Force. 

My work bridges the domains of science, management, and policy, and promotes practical evidence‐based research as the basis for effective and impactful strategies to conserve Africa’s rich biodiversity. I have published over 50 scientific papers and book chapters covering topics from large carnivore ecology and conservation, natural resources governance and policy, the wildlife economy, road ecology, and restorative justice. With an early career focused on large carnivore conservation, I am passionate about the role of conservation evidence and applied science in driving effective action. I also understand that good decision making is both a science and an art! Born and raised in Zimbabwe, I spent more than two decades at the Endangered Wildlife Trust in South Africa, driving its strategic direction and later building its Conservation Planning and Science Unit. I joined Conserve Global in July 2022.

My qualifications include an MSc in Tropical Resource Ecology from the University of Zimbabwe, and a Doctorate on African Wild Dogs from Oxford University’s WildCRU.

Helen Tugendhat is the co-Executive Director of Synchronicity Earth, a conservation funder based in the United Kingdom that works to support under-funded and over-looked ecosystems and species and work directly with and in support of local communities, Indigenous Peoples and custodians. She also serves as Thematic Vice Chair, Governance, Equity and Rights in the IUCN World Commission on Protected Areas.

Thematic Vice Chair, Capacity Development. Mike’s work as a conservation practitioner focuses on applied, area-based conservation, working in more than 40 counties to help establish protected areas, create legal frameworks and governance systems, develop management strategies and plans, and build the capacity of staff and organizations.

I am a Lawyer graduated from the Rosario University in Bogota, with a specialization in environmental law from the same university and a double Masters from Ohio University in International Affairs/Development Studies and Environmental Studies. I have been working in the environmental field since 1996 and I am passionately dedicated to conservation and sustainable development. I worked for 10 years in the National Protected Areas Agency in different capacities including policy development, negotiations with local communities on PA boundaries and governance, eradication of illicit crops, and finally 4 years as Director for National Parks of the Amazon and Orinoco. I joined WWF in 2003 and since 2017, have served as COO, overseeing all aspects of Operations, Finance and Business Development. I am deeply devoted to understand the organization and to work for the development of the new national organization, partnership development both internally in the Network and externally, and developing a firm financial foundation for the organization. I hold the CEO position in WWF Colombia since July 19, 2021.

Darlene joined Parks Canada in 1996 holding a number of positions in three national parks and at executive levels in the Agency’s National Office. She has a Bachelor of Science, an Honours Bachelor of Outdoor Recreation, and a Certificate of Tourism from Lakehead University and completed a Master of Science from the University of Toronto. Darlene is an alumni of Singularity University Executive Leadership program and a Salzburg Global Fellow. 

Darlene has significant experience working with Indigenous, federal, provincial, and municipal governments, and environmental non-governmental organizations in the establishment and management of protected areas. Darlene is also working internationally to support protected areas management in the role of Chair for the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Green List Panel. Darlene puts a focus on building team and leadership and has been a guest on the Adam Grant – Work Life Ted syndicated podcast about Compassionate Workplaces. Darlene is involved in her community running an art program at a women’s supportive housing initiative, sitting as a board member for the Centre de Service Communautaire de Vanier, and is on the Advisory Board for Wavemakers, a work integrated learning program for youth.

Fabrice Stephenson is a marine ecologist at Newcastle University and a thematic Vice Chair for the WCPA Marine Thematic Group. His research has primarily focused on exploring the spatial patterns and underlying drivers of marine biodiversity, as well as investigating how human-induced impacts — such as the cumulative effects of stressors like fishing and climate change — might influence these patterns. Using statistical modelling approaches, he has developed science that aims to inform strategic policy approaches to managing the marine environment, in particular the development of marine spatial plans. He is currently undertaking a 5-year interdisciplinary research fellowship at Newcastle University which aims to develop improved approaches for estimating spatial distributions of ecosystem services under a changing climate and how these data can inform coherent, efficient and equitable resource management.

Regional Vice Chair, South America. M.Sc. in Sustainability Science, Resilience and Global Change. With over 18 years of experience and an on-going career in biodiversity conservation at the international, regional and national levels, with specialized knowledge in equitable governance, multilateral environmental agreements and cooperation for marine and land area-based conservation, with a sustainable use and climate-smart view. Sound performance in project design and implementation, multi-country/multi-sectoral programme management, capacity development, fundraising, high level advisory, large event leadership, negotiation and multi-stakeholder engagement, as well as a combination of in-the-field work and office management within private, public and international organizations.

Regional Vice Chair, Oceania. Lou Sanson has 40 years experience in conservation. He originally trained as a research scientist in mountainland management with Forest Research Institute in New Zealand. He helped establish the Dept of Conservation in 1987 and became the youngest District Conservator at the time. Email: [email protected]