Specialist Groups of the IUCN Species Survival Commission (SSC) are established for four-year terms, which begin immediately following the quadrennial IUCN World Conservation Congress. The intercessional period began after the most recent Congress held in Hawaii in September 2016
Process for membership appointment to the AfESG
Members are invited by the Chair(s) of the AfESG and, as such, there is no application process. In the run-up to the start of a new quadrennium, the AfESG Secretariat requests all existing members to fill in questionnaires outlining their activities over the previous four years, as well as their plans for the next four years, their area of expertise and the geographic coverage of their work. Members who are no longer active or are not intending to be active are not reappointed.
Existing members are also invited to recommend candidates who could be considered as possible new members. Names of possible new members are also collected from other colleagues and research by the Secretariat. Candidates for membership are then requested to fill in a questionnaire similar to the one filled in by existing members. The information for all existing members and new candidates is then reviewed by the AfESG Secretariat and Chair(s) and, where necessary, further information is requested. Once appointments are made by the Chair(s), they are then formalised by the SSC. All AfESG members are required to read and accept the SSC Members TOR and the IUCN Code of Conduct for Commission members.
Among other key selection criteria for members of the AfESG they must have been actively working in elephant conservation and/or management in the preceding 12 months and have specific and clear plans to be involved with elephant conservation and/or management over the coming four years, with a focus in one or more of the Group’s priority areas which currently are: AfESG 2021-2025 Quadrennium outputs.
Recognizing the very different circumstances under which elephants persist throughout Africa, members are selected so that the overall membership remains effective, impactful and manageable, while encompassing a balance of expertise and experience across range states, as well as technical specialty in the Group’s priority areas. At the same time, an effort is made to maintain institutional memory through active longstanding members, as well as to build the capacity of younger scientists and emerging conservation practitioners, especially range state nationals. Scientists who are in the middle of completing their PhDs on elephants are not usually appointed to the AfESG, due to the high number of graduates who go on to work, within the intersessional period, in other aspects of conservation and not specifically on elephants.
Given the on-going poaching pressures on some elephant populations, the AfESG intends to develop partnerships with other organisations who are directly involved in law enforcement activities, such as intelligence, crime scene management, prosecutions and judicial matters, rather than having a wide base of members with these specialities within the group.
Likewise, we will be pursuing our work to identify the locality and extent of hybrid elephant populations in partnership with relevant experts from other institutions.
The group consists of 97 specialists from 25 countries with diverse skill sets:
Comlan Tehou
Tempe Adams, Mike Chase, Michael Flyman, Mmadi Reuben, Anna Songhurst
Emmanuel Hema, Lamine Sebogo, Alain Traoré
Malachie Dolmia
Wei Ji
Thomas Breuer
Salimata Koné
John Hart, Leonard Mubalama, Paulin Tshikaya
Kumara Gemeda
Stéphanie Bourgeois, Alice Laguardia, Steeve Ngama, Joseph Okouyi, Lee White
Emmanuel Danquah, Moses Sam
Julian Blanc, Iain Douglas-Hamilton, Holly Dublin, Marc Goss, Festus Ihwagi, Winnie Kiiru, Lucy King, Richard Lamprey, Nakedi Maputla, Shadrack Ngene, Leo Niskanen, Ben Okita-Ouma, Patrick Omondi, Rose Mayienda, Noah Sitati, Daniel Stiles, Chris Thouless, Lydia Tiller, Hilde Vanleeuwe, Lucy Vigne, Mohammed Yahya
Tommy Mhango
Cornelio Ntumi
Colin Craig, Deb Gibson, Russell Taylor, Kenneth Uiseb
Joyce Poole
Emma Stokes
Dave Balfour, Audrey Delsink, Enrico Di Minin, Charles Edwards, Sam Ferreira, Hervé Fritz, Marion Garai, Michelle Henley, Stephen Midzi, Pete Ruinard, Jeanetta Selier, Rob Slotow, Johan van Atena, Ian Whyte
Malik Morjan
Anna Estes, Charles Foley, Howard Frederick, Maximillan Jenes, Edward Kohi, Alex Lobora, Simon Mduma
Charles Tumwesigye, James Watuwa
Susan Canney, Keith Lindsay, Fiona Maisels
Duan Biggs, Kathleen Gobush, Shifra Goldenberg, Nelson Ting, Andrea Turkalo, Samuel Wasser, George Wittemyer
Christopher Kaoma
Patience Gandiwa, Richard Hoare, Malvern Karidozo, Phillip Kuvawoga, Tom Milliken, Nobesuthu Ngwenya, Loki Osborn