Team 

Matthew H. Shirley, Ph.D. 
Florida International University
Lead PI, Ecological Monitoring
mshirley@fiu.edu

Dr. Shirley is a Conservation Scientist in the Global Forensics and Justice Center at Florida International University in a unique role bridging to FIU’s Institute of Environment. His work relies on flagship species to advance conservation and ecology research in tropical forests and wetlands globally. His applied species ecology and evolution research programs are focused on crocodilians and pangolins, among other charismatic but often ignored species. Among other things, his research has resulted in the recognition of 3 new crocodile species in Africa and implementation of applied conservation work to ensure the future of these species' populations. Dr. Shirley began working with pangolins in 2018 and he currently runs a comprehensive research program to better understand pangolin-environment interactions, abundance, factors affecting distribution and local harvest, health and nutrition, as well as better understanding species in trade and trade composition. In the policy domain, he works with the IUCN to guide mechanisms for species trade through CITES. And he works to bridge the gap between science, policy, and law enforcement through training and capacity-building with enforcement officers for control of wildlife trafficking. Dr. Shirley is a member of the IUCN Species Survival Commission, including serving as Co-Chairman of the Pangolin Specialist Group (since 2021), Chair of the West and Central Africa region for the Crocodile Specialist Group (since 2008), and as a member of the Sustainable Use and Livelihoods (since 2018) Specialist Groups. He is a National Geographic Explorer and Future For Nature laureate. Dr. Shirley is fluent in English and French.

Daniel Challender, Ph.D. 
University of Oxford
Co-PI, Trade and Policy
dan.challender@biology.ok.ac.uk

Dr. Dan Challender is leading on the social components of Operation Pangolin. This will involve Dr. Challender generating an understanding of the social-ecological systems (SESs) in which pangolins are harvested, used and traded in and around three protected areas in Cameroon and working with local communities to devise solutions to prevent pangolins from being overexploited.

Dr. Challender is an interdisciplinary Conservation Scientist from the University of Oxford and is affiliated with the Department of Biology and Oxford Martin School. He is interested in the wildlife trade, its sustainability, governance, economics, and relationship with human behavior, and has a particular interest in pangolins and their conservation.

His current research focuses on pangolins and wildlife trade policy. He is interested in understanding the use and trade of pangolins along supply chains to ensure that the species are not overexploited and more broadly to improving conservation policymaking to ensure that it is effective as well as fair and equitable and respects the rights of local people.

Alasdair Davies
Arribada Initiative
Co-PI, Technological Innovation
alasdair@arribada.org

Alasdair Davies is technical director of the Arribada Initiative. He has 14 years’ experience developing, designing and deploying conservation technologies for conservation organizations globally, including the Zoological Society of London, the National Geographic Society the World Wide Fund for Nature and the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds. His primary focus is the development of open source conservation technologies, with his most notable achievement the release of the first open source Argos satellite transmitter reference design for telemetry and biologging. Alasdair was awarded a Shuttleworth Foundation Fellowship in March 2017 for his dedication to the development of open source conservation technologies, enabling him to found the Arribada Initiative as a program of the Shuttleworth Foundation to unlock access to open source conservation technologies focusing on human-wildlife conflict, low-cost telemetry, biologging and passive acoustic monitoring technologies. Alasdair continues to direct funding to numerous community field conservation programs, including the award winning Club Arribada programme that delivers free computer science and digital literacy classes for school children aged 7 – 11 across West Africa.

Bistra Dilkina, Ph.D. 
University of Southern California
Co-PI, Big Data Coalescence
dilkina@usc.edu

Dr. Bistra Dilkina, an associate professor of computer science and industrial and systems engineering at the University of Southern California (USC), and co-director of USC’s Center for AI in Society, will lead the data coalescence and artificial intelligence aspects of the project. This will involve uniting diverse data sources on pangolin populations and crime, and designing innovative artificial intelligence tools and data science platforms. The goal is to distill new insights about drivers of trafficking behavior and to improve predictions and decision-making relevant to wildlife trafficking prevention in partnership with local communities.

Dr. Dilkina is an expert in artificial intelligence working at the intersection of discrete optimization and machine learning. In addition to numerous advances in computational methodology, she has a strong focus on real-world applications related to sustainability, such as wildlife conservation and trafficking, land cover mapping, mitigation planning for disaster-resilient infrastructure networks (water and roads), and climate change impacts. In the area of biodiversity preservation, Dr. Dilkina has extensive expertise in applying AI to spatially explicit conservation planning optimization such as the design of wildlife corridors and has worked with the US Geological Survey, the US Forest Service, and The Conservation Fund on these topics. Dr. Dilkina also has contributed to the development of the AI-based tool PAWS, which helps conservation areas identify poaching hotspots and route rangers more effectively, and helped field test this tool with WWF at the Srepok Wildlife Sanctuary in Cambodia. Dilkina’s work on AI for Biodiversity Conservation is funded by three National Science Foundation grants, as well as Microsoft AI for Earth, with ongoing projects focusing on using AI to fight wildlife trafficking and using AI to inform conservation investments considering uncertainty and institutional hierarchies.

Meredith Gore, Ph.D.
University of Maryland 
Co-PI, Conservation Criminology
gorem@umd.edu

Dr. Meredith Gore is a conservation social scientist. She advances understanding about the human dimensions of global environmental change such as biodiversity loss and climate change. The majority of her research uses risk concepts to explore human-environment interactions and all of her efforts are designed to build evidence for action. She brings an interdisciplinary perspective to a range of conservation issues such as wildlife trafficking, illegal fishing and illegal logging.

Dr. Gore is on the faculty of the Department of Geographical Sciences at the University of Maryland, College Park. She received her Ph.D. in Natural Resource Policy and Management from Cornell University, MA in Environment and Resource Policy from George Washington University, and BA in Anthropology and Environmental Studies from Brandeis University. From 2006-2020, she was on the faculty at Michigan State University. She is also an American Geographical Society Council Member, a National Academies of Sciences Jefferson Science Fellow, US Department of State Embassy Science Fellow and Emerging Wildlife Conservation Leader.

Carla Louise Mousset Moumbolou
Agence Nationale des Parcs Nationaux
Partner
moussetcarla.anpn@gmail.com

Carla Louise Mousset Moumbolou is a conservation biologist by training, a pangolin specialist, a member of the IUCN Pangolin Specialist Group and President of the Gabon Pangolin Working Group, which aims to capitalize on pangolin conservation efforts and inspire young people in Gabon. She also holds a master's degree in management, conservation and control of internationally traded species from the International University of Andalusia, Spain, and is currently in charge of coordinating the scientific activities of the National Parks Agency (ANPN). In addition, Mrs. Carla Louise is in charge of the implementation and monitoring of the quality management system of the Wildlife Genetics Laboratory of the ANPN since 2020. She discovered the issues around pangolins in 2015 in Cameroon for almost two years where she worked to test methods of assessing pangolin populations in the wild https://doi.org/10.1016/j.gecco.2019.e00539.

Andrew Fowler
Zoological Society of London 
Partner

Andrew Fowler is regional director for West and Central Africa with ZSL (the Zoological Society of London) and manages the ZSL Cameroon country program in Yaounde, Cameroon. ZSL supports the government of Cameroon in protected area management, concentrating on the Dja Biosphere Reserve and surrounding TRIDOM landscape. They work extensively with private sector operators on sustainably managing wildlife in logging concessions and other land use. A key element of ZSL's work is engaging with local communities who live adjacent to protected areas to support and empower their sustainable use of natural resources, facilitating them in the development of alternative income generating activities. ZSL's work in recent years has concentrated on pangolins, African grey parrots and forest elephants, developing strategies to address the Illegal Wildlife Trade in these three species through law enforcement and community engagement.