Dr. Chris Thouless, QGM
ECF Director & Research Director
Dr. Chris Thouless has nearly 30 years of experience working for governments, NGOs and private sector in Africa and Asia. He is a specialist in wildlife conservation, community-based natural resource management, project management, protected area planning and management, public private partnerships and tourism development. He has a particular interest in elephant conservation, having worked on elephant movement patterns, human wildlife conflict and elephant surveys in several countries.
He was Chairman of CITES Panel of Experts on the African Elephant in 1996 and has been a member of the IUCN Species Survival Commission since 1986. He was lead author of the African Elephant Status Report (2016). Chris has held a number of senior positions, including coordinator of the reconstruction of the Nairobi National Museum, director of Millenium Challenge Corporation investments in community conservation in Namibia, senior wildlife biologist for the Kalahari in Botswana, chief advisor on sustainable tourism to the government of Namibia and deputy director of the Lewa Wildlife Conservancy, a leading private sector conservation organisation in Kenya.
Chris holds an MA in zoology from the University of Oxford, and a PhD from the University of Cambridge. He was awarded the Queen’s Gallantry Medal in 1991.