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Alastair Nelson
Country Director, Maputo Office
Alastair has 20 years conservation experience in seven African countries and an MSc in wildlife conservation from Oxford University. He first worked in anti-poaching, ecological monitoring, and black rhino monitoring in South Africa in the early 1990’s. In 2000-3 he co-led desert wildlife surveys in northern Kenya and southern Ethiopia, and worked for the Ethiopian Wolf Conservation Programme in the Bale Mountains of Ethiopia. In 2004 he initiated Frankfurt Zoological Society’s (FZS) Bale Mountains Conservation Project – which he ran for four years, whilst also serving as FZS Country Representative for Ethiopia. He then moved to FZS’s Africa headquarters in the Serengeti, overseeing six protected area and ecosystem management projects in Tanzania, Zambia and Kenya, and their rhino conservation program. In 2010 Alastair joined the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) as an Assistant Director in the Africa program, based in the New York Head-quarters. In late 2012, as WCS’s new country director to Mozambique, he moved to Maputo to start a conservation program, initially focusing on co-management of the Niassa National Reserve with Government, and on strengthening the frameworks for protected area management at the national level. This program now employs 140 staff and is solidly entrenched in a close partnership with the Government of Mozambique, co-managing Niassa National Reserve and working to reduce threats in the Reserve, supporting efforts to counter wildlife trafficking at a national level, and working to strengthen national capacity for PA management. Alastair has experience in NGO leadership, strategic planning, and developing and implementing management systems. He also has hands-on experience in protected area management and planning, species conservation and planning, ecosystem planning, and natural resource management systems.
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Carlos Manuel Lopes Pereira
Technical Director, Maputo Office
Carlos Lopes Pereira, is a Mozambican National, who studied Veterinary Medicine in Mozambique and then received specialized in veterinary epidemiology (MSc.) and wildlife in Edinburgh (Scotland), Utrecht (Holland), Skukuza (Kruger National Park- South Africa) and Malilangwe (Zimbabwe). He has been working with wildlife for more than 25 years. He carried out the first known reintroduction of animals in a Conservation Area in Mozambique after Independence. For 6 years from 2005-2011 he headed the Conservation Department in Gorongosa National Park, including responsibility for law enforcement, the wildlife sanctuary and all wildlife veterinary matters. He is married with Dagmar and has one daughter. After leaving the Gorongosa Restoration project he started working for the National Directorate of Conservation areas in the Ministry of Tourism (today National Administration of Conservation Areas - ANAC, within the Ministry of Land, Environment and Rural Development) initially to facilitate the management transition of Niassa National Reserve. In late 2012 he joined WCS permanently as part of the team co-managing Niassa Reserve, and to work on national wildlife anti-trafficking. Since February 2015 Carlos has been seconded from WCS to ANAC as the National Director of Law Enforcement and Anti-Poaching.
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Robert Craig
Niassa Program Director, NNR
Following studying a master’s degree in environment and international development at the University of Manchester, Rob Craig worked in Costa Rica for a smallholder organic farmers association pioneering agro-ecological farming and marketing systems to support local livelihoods and conserve the Mesoamerican Biological Corridor. In 2002 he moved to Kenya, where he was based for eight years providing technical support to a variety of organisations implementing conservation and natural resource management initiatives in the region. Rob joined WCS in February 2010. After four years as land-use planner and deputy director for the South Sudan Program, he spent nine months as M&E advisor to the Afghanistan Program. He joined WCS Mozambique in January 2015, and is currently the Niassa Program Director, and Chief of Party on the USAID ECOSMART project.
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Eunica Zunguza
Director of Finance and Administration, Maputo Office
Eunica Zunguza’s background comprises an Honour Degree in Auditing and Accounting and a Master Degree in Business Administration (MBA). Her working portfolio from the early 1980’s included being a Project Manager, Administrator, Accountant, Financial & Administrative Director and Acting as Regional & Executive Director with different Regional/International organisations. Eunica has garnered valuable experience and qualifications throughout her many years in leadership positions. In her previous employment, she was leading a workforce of over 150 employees and managing a budget of over $ 20 million per annum for the past 4 years, with the Global Fund as the major donor. As Finance & Administrative Director, she was responsible for General Office Administration, Human Resource, Financial and IT Departments.
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Hugo Costa
COMBO Project Director - Mozambique, Maputo Office
Hugo Costa has a degree in Zoology and a Master in Environmental Impact Assessment. He has over 15 years of professional experience, having participated in projects in Mozambique, South Africa, Angola, Portugal, Poland, Finland and Venezuela. He is currently the COMBO Project Manager for Mozambique. Hugo has in his background 11 years experience in managing biodiversity consultancy companies in Europe and Africa. He has undertaken environmental consultancy services in several areas, having conducted and/or coordinated over 500 biodiversity monitoring programmes, assessments and plans for different types of projects such as wind farms, dams, power lines, power stations, pipelines, roads, railways, oil & gas, mining, solar and wave energy projects, agriculture, forestry, ports, industry, among other infrastructure. Additionally, Hugo has participated in mitigation and offset programmes, identification and valuation of biodiversity and ecosystem services, conservation programmes, climate change adaptation, biodiversity action plans and management planning. Besides consultancy and technical-scientific advisory Hugo is co-author of 1 book, 12 peer-reviewed scientific papers and 16 technical papers.
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Arnaud Goessens
Program Manager, Maputo Office
Arnaud Goessens currently coordinates counter wildlife trafficking work between Mozambique, Vietnam and China. In his previous position at WCS Brussels, he worked as policy officer and coordinated WCS delegation and activities at the CITES CoP17 in South Africa. In 2011, he conducted research on the management of mangrove forests in Malaysia and has several field experiences working with sea turtles in Malaysia and numerous wild animals such as howler monkeys, endangered macaws, and sloths in Costa Rica. He served in international organizations including the United Nations Development Programme and the European Commission, where he wrote case studies on best practices drawn from GEF-SGP projects and assessed environmental projects to be funded by the EU respectively. He holds a Master of Science in Bioengineering from the Free University of Brussels and a Master of Public Administration in Environmental Policy from Columbia University in New York City.
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David Bradfield
Niassa Reserve Field Operations Manager, NNR
David Bradfield spent his childhood on a farm in the Eastern Cape Province, South Africa. Educated at Queens College and following conscription in the South African Army David started his conservation career as a horseback safari guide, then joined the Mpumalanga provincial parks board as a ‘game scout’ and then as a section ranger and specialized in black and white rhino monitoring and protection in both government reserves and the private sector. Together with his wife Andrea he spent 4 years in Malawi’s Liwonde National park as project manager for the Frankfurt Zoological Society. In 2005 they moved to Cambodia where he took up the post as Program Manager for the Cardamom Mountains Wildlife Sanctuaries project in Western Cambodia with Fauna & Flora International. Before joining WCS Mozambique, David worked for WCS Afghanistan from 2008 to 2016 where he was involved in the establishment of Afghanistan’s first national park, Band-e-Amir in Bamyan province. David and Andrea and their son Tarquin live in Mossel Bay, South Africa.
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Falk Grossman
Niassa Reserve Conservation Aviation Manager and Elephant Protection Coordinator, NNR
Falk was raised and schooled in Tanzania, after which he completed a BSc in Anthropology and Ecology at Oxford Brookes University, and then a Masters in Environment, Development and Policy at Sussex University. His main interests are landscape ecology, the status and trends in wildlife on the African continent, wildlife survey methods, aerial survey methods, and GIS & RS and OpenSource GIS & database applications in developing countries. Falk has planned and executed landscape scale wildlife surveys in all five World Heritage Sites in DRCongo, in addition to a number of other sites - with a particular focus on Bonobo, Chimpanzee, Gorilla, Elephant and Okapi. His contribution to landscape wide surveys of apes and elephants is included in a seminal book on bonobo ecology and conservation (2007). He has conducted further ecological field research in Tanzania, Kenya, Iceland, UK, DRC and South Sudan, and holds a US Commercial Pilots License (CPL) with an Instrument Rating (IR). Falk led Mozambique's national elephant survey in late 2014, before joining WCS Mozambique in mid 2015 and moving to Niassa Reserve in his current role.
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Erica Bernardo
Office Manager, Maputo Office
Erica Bernardo has a BSc degree in Computer Science and Telecommunications Engineering from Instituto Superior de Transportes e Comunicações (ISUTC) in Mozambique. Prior to joining WSC, Erica worked as a consultant at a Mozambican based consultancy named OzMozis, Lda. under the leadership of Dr. Michael Baxter. At OzMozis she was involved in the conception, planning, elaboration and implementation of a few projects, ranging from agricultural based projects to projects in the extractive industry. Erica has recently joined WCS Mozambique working as an Office Manager and is mainly responsible for the management of administration in the Maputo office (MPO) and Human Resources.
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Nilton Cuna
Logistics & Procurement Manager, Maputo Office
Nilton graduated in Tourism Management from Eduardo Mondlane University - Mozambique. His interest in conservation began with his flower culture business and was complemented in Bazaruto National Park and Niassa Reserve. Nilton has worked in Niassa National Reserve with the previous NNR management authority (SGDRN), first in the Community Assistance Program, then as the Logistics and Maintenance Department Manager, and he also assisted the tourism monitoring program. Nilton started with WCS Mozambique in late 2012 and has helped to establish the country program and the Maputo Office, his current position is Logistics and Procurement Manager for the country program based in Maputo.
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