IUCN SSC Bustard Specialist Group

Nigel Collar is a Leventis Fellow in Conservation Biology with BirdLife International, where he has worked for 45 years in a variety of roles, including the compilation of the International Bird Red Data Book. He served as Chairman of the ICBP Bustard Group 1978-1982, and became chair (now co-chair) of the group when it was reconstituted under the aegis of IUCN SSC in 2012.

Mimi Kessler is a PhD biologist who has worked on the ecology and conservation of bustards for over twenty years. Her experience includes over seven cumulative years in countries of Eurasia, largely in rural areas on community-based conservation and research programs, and four years in southwest Asia directing policy and research on bustard species. Major scientific accomplishments of her research team include the first telemetry to identify the Great Bustard’s long-distance migratory route in Asia, and the first analyses to describe the genetic divergence of the eastern subspecies of the Great Bustard. With her collaborators, Dr Kessler has developed and advanced a series of successful conservation proposals for bustard species under the Convention on Migratory Species, and serves on the IUCN delegation at CMS COPs. She is a founder and member of the Coordination Unit of the Bustards Without Borders initiative. As a consultant, she has developed conservation recommendations for two Critically Endangered bustard species, as well as guidance for the reduction and mitigation of harm to bustards from energy developments.