Petch Manopawitr

Petch is a conservation scientist with over 25 years of experience in the fields of biodiversity conservation, protected area management and science on sustainability.  His master research at James Cook University in Australia concerned the evolutional theory of tropical rainforest by looking at foraging ecology of insectivorous birds across habitat types in the Wet Tropics of Queensland. He earned a PhD from Geography Department at University of Victoria in Canada looking at ways to design resilient marine protected area network in the Andaman Sea to address climate change impact. Currently he works as Technical Advisor for a number of international conservation organizations including ZSL, UNDP, UNEP-WCMC, WCS and WildAid while serving as board member for Green World Foundation (Secretary-General), Bird Conservation Society of Thailand (President), Sustainable Development Foundation (Board member) and Earth Agenda Foundation (Secretary-General). He cofounded ReReef – a sustainability enterprise in 2017.

Petch is National Geographic Explorer and a freelance environmental writer.  He has published over 200 articles on conservation biology and current conservation issues in various print and online media.  He received Green Globe Award for the best conservation writing, Best Green Change Maker Influencer, Best Influencer on Social Media on Environment. He is also a recipient of the Fulbright’s Hubert H. Humphrey Fellowship at Cornell University and Hawaii Institute of Marine Biology, WCS Clive Marsh Conservation Scholarship and is Global Fellow in Marine Conservation at Duke University Marine Laboratory.  He was selected as Thailand’s Outstanding Fulbright Alumni in 2021 and Thailand Future List in 2022.