Board Members
Emilie Parry, President
Emilie Parry has been working across the relational ontology spaces of ecology, ecosystems design, biodiversity loss and climate change for over a decade. She focused her doctoral work at University of Oxford School of Geography and the Environment (SoGE) on interfaith climate and ecology networks across Asia / Asia Pacific and Africa. She has brought the notions of sacred ecology and faith and climate action / biodiversity conservation to the Environmental Change Institute gatherings, courses in SoGE, and to many affiliated donors, policy makers and practitioners through her work with Rootbridge Ecosystems (https://www.weadapt.org/organisation/rootbridge).
Bram Steenhuisen, Vice President
Bram Steenhuisen is an interdisciplinary professional focusing on faith-based nature conservation in the Greater Mekong Subregion. With an academic background in politics (BA - SOAS), human rights (MA - Essex) and nature conservation (MSc - Wageningen), Bram specialises in the environment-society-politics nexus. In his current work as Beliefs & Values Advisor to WWF in Myanmar he brings faith communities and natural science-based conservationists together on inclusive conservation that is rooted in mutual respect, aimed at benefiting nature and people. Bram's academic research focused on Human Rights Principles in liberal, African and Buddhist Philosophies; and Karen Perceptions of the Forest. His publications include The Role of Spirits in Indigenous Ontologies and Their Implications for Forest Conservation (Sacred Forests of Asia - Routledge, 2022); Different Natures of Reality Inform Different Realities of Nature: What Karen perceptions of forest reveal about nature conservation in Indigenous contexts (Conservation & Society, 2022); and https://www.recoftc.org/stories/whose-knowledge? Prior to working on faith-based nature conservation Bram worked as Human Rights-Based Approach advisor (IRC, Thailand/Pakistan) and multiparty dialogue facilitator (NIMD, Myanmar). Bram is a self-motivated team player and solution oriented, creative thinker. With an eye for the religious, cultural and political dimensions of conservation, Bram looks forward to helping reinvigorate the RCBWG as your Vice President.
Alex Greene, Secretary
Alex Greene is an interdisciplinary researcher whose work employs the techniques and theory of anthropology, botany, ecology and religious studies to examine the diversity of ways that human systems are interdependent with environmental systems. Alex’s particular interests include traditional knowledge, spiritual ecology and multispecies ethnography, and he has a strong background in field botany, ornithology and environmental education. His work focuses on the culture and ecology of south and southeast Asia, where he has conducted research on traditional plant use in Viet Nam, elephant medicine in northern Thailand and sacred forests in far western Nepal. He believes that sound research can build the relationships and lay the groundwork that lead to collaborative sustainable development projects which empower local communities to improve their welfare while also protecting the ecological systems and many lives that help constitute our earth and home.
Harrison Ajebe Nnoko Ngaajei, Treasurer
Harrison Ngaaje is a seasoned Manager, Conservation, Social forestry and Community Developer with over 17 years professional experience. Since January 2010, Harrison has led the activities of AJEMALEBU SELF HELP (AJESH) – https://www.ajesh.org. He works on Nature-based Solutions (NbS) focusing on natural resources management viz: land governance, ecosystem restoration, biodiversity conservation; participatory mapping and land use planning, defending community land and resources access rights; climate change mitigation; forest governance, landscape/ seascape and watershed management. Through the Cameroonian Civil Society Organisation (CSO) network, Community and Forest Platform (CFP), Harrison has been very influential in the negotiations and implementation processes of the Voluntary Partnership Agreement of the Forest Law Enforcement Governance and Trade (VPA-FLEGT), signed between Cameroon and the European Union. Harrison has been part of the CSO team of experts that analysed Chinese involvement in the forest and natural resources sector in the Congo Basin. The work of Harrison and AJESH has received several appreciations including an honorific award in 2016 from the prestigious Momentum for Change Climate Neutral Now Initiative, launched by the Secretariat of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). Harrison also received an Award of Excellency from the Cameroon Ministry of Forestry and Wildlife (MINFOF). Harrison is the brain behind AJESH's accreditations to UNCCD, UNFCCC, ECOSOC, SER, CBD, etc and is the National Focal Point of the UNCCD/UNEP/CSO/Africa/Cameroon platform. He has been instrumental in the elaboration and implementation of National planning and development guidelines for Cameroon: the Harmonized National Methodology on Community participatory Mapping and the Local Land Use and sustainable development Plan (PLADDT). Within the framework on mapping and land use planning, Harrison through AJESH are leading mapping and community land use planning in Africa.
Radhika Borde, Member-at-Large
Dr. Radhika Borde is currently a researcher and lecturer at the Department of Social Geography and Regional Development at the Charles University in Prague and will be starting a lectureship at the Geography Department of the University of Leeds in the UK. She is also a steering committee member of the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Specialist Group on the Cultural and Spiritual Values of Protected Areas and edits their newsletter. She has a PhD in the social sciences from Wageningen University in the Netherlands. She has worked as an activist and social entrepreneur in India – she continues to support grassroots-level, indigenous-led rural initiatives in the country and to run a social enterprise which is focused on circular economies of waste. She has researched and published academic articles and book chapters on the Anthropocene, social movements related to mining, Adivasi (tribal) culture and religiosity, sacred natural sites in India, activist media, and Adivasi women’s movements. Along with other colleagues, she is currently editing a book on religion and nature conservation.
Fred Van Dyke, Member-at-Large
Fred Van Dyke is the former Executive Director of the Au Sable Institute, a Christian institute of environmental study and conservation devoted to conservation education, research, and engagement of the Church in conservation efforts. After receiving his PhD in environmental and forest biology from the College of Environmental Science and Forestry, State University of New York-Syracuse, Fred served as Chair of the Department of Biology and Director of the Environmental Studies Program at Wheaton College (Illinois). In government service, Fred has worked as a wildlife biologist for the state of Montana, a consultant to the National Park Service, and an ex officio member of numerous interdisciplinary management teams of the U.S. Forest Service. In the private sector, Fred has been serving as a consulting scientist to the energy industry on the effects of energy development on wildlife, with his research published in numerous journals and books. He has been active in collaborations between Christian and conservation communities, most recently at the Au Sable Institute where he developed a curriculum of 25 courses in conservation serving students from more than 60 colleges and universities in the Coalition of Christian Colleges and Universities (CCCU). At Au Sable, Fred formed collaborations between the Institute, state and federal agencies, private businesses, and Indigenous Michigan Native American Tribal Nations. Fred is the author of two books on Christian environmental ethics, Redeeming Creation (InterVarsity Press, 1996) and Between Heaven and Earth (ABC- CLIO, 2010), and has contributed his understanding on the interaction of religion and conservation in the books Values in Sustainable Development and Concepts and Values in Biodiversity (Routledge 2014, both books). His widely used textbook in conservation, Conservation Biology: Foundations, Concepts, Applications (Springer 2020) features a chapter on values and ethics in conservation and the work of religious communities worldwide in conserving biodiversity.
Bas Verschuuren, Member-at-Large
Bas Verschuuren is an assistant professor at the Forest and Nature Conservation Policy group at Wageningen University in The Netherlands. Bas links practical conservation experience and applied multidisciplinary conservation-research in order to strengthen governance and management of conservation areas. His work offers historical, political, religious and ontological perspectives on the global development of area based conservation. Bas has published over 40 book chapters and academic articles as well as 5 edited volumes on human nature linkages and an IUCN Best Practice Guideline on the cultural and spiritual significance of nature in protected areas. See Bas' publications on Researchgate. Bas serves as a co-chair for the IUCN Specialist Group on Cultural and Spiritual Values of Protected Areas and is a founder of the Sacred Natural Sites Initiative.
Liza Zogib, Member-at-Large
Liza Zogib is founder and co-creator of DiversEarth, an NGO working at the special interface of nature, culture and spirit. As well as working to support local communities and their practices that benefit nature, DiversEarth also focuses on the protection, management and restoration of sacred natural sites and facilitating interreligious dialogue. Liza is a founding member of the Mediterranean Consortium for Nature and Culture and coordinator of their current project. DiversEarth’s geographical focus is the Mediterranean, Asia (in particular the Himalayas) and Switzerland. Thematically, DiversEarth directs its energy towards supporting mobile pastoralism and spiritually inspired conservation initiatives. Prior to the creation of DiversEarth, Liza worked for 11 years with WWF International first within the global protected areas programme and latterly in the Global and Regional Policy unit where she coordinated an international team leading on the development and implementation of WWF’s social policies. Liza is also co-chair of the IUCN CEESP Specialist Group on Religion, Spirituality, Environmental Conservation and Climate Justice (ReSpECC). A long-time yoga practitioner/teacher and a dancer of Bharata Natyam, Liza’s work is inspired by yogic and tantric teachings.