Promoting careers in conservation

Joshua Elves-Powell, a new London NERC Doctoral Training Programme (DTP) student in UCL Geography, was recently invited by WWF International to discuss careers in conservation with their global audiences as part of a new online webinar series, Elephant in the Zoom, being launched by the WWF.

The series aims to explore varied, and often challenging, topics relating to conservation, with a focus on youth audiences around the world.

Josh has a background as a conservation biologist and, with the support of National Geographic, founded Rangers Without Borders, a conservation research programme focussed on the work of wildlife rangers.

He subsequently became involved with WWF as one of the faces of WWF International’s #WWFVoices campaign on global biodiversity.

During Elephant in the Zoom, Josh appears alongside Suyash Keshari, a wildlife filmmaker and presenter, and Bhavna Menon, a conservationist and programme manager for the Last Wildness Foundation in India.

Together they explore the challenges of different career paths in conservation, discuss future directions for conservation, and introduce a number of grants and training opportunities available to those interested in a conservation career. 

Josh’s PhD research at UCL with Dr Jan Axmacher in association with Dr Sarah Durant at the Zoological Society of London, will continue to focus on the conservation of large carnivores and, in particular, opportunities and challenges for the transboundary conservation of the endangered Amur tiger (Panthera tigris tigris) in north-east Asia.

See

• Rangers without Borders
• Rangers Without Borders: protecting nature in divided lands
• Amur Tiger
• Sarah Dunant