Katy SCHOLFIELD

I am the Director of Strategic Grantmaking for the Great Apes and Gibbons Program at Arcus Foundation. I oversee the foundation’s conservation grantmaking across Africa and Southeast Asia, where Arcus supports sustainable, just and holistic approaches to conservation and well-being of great and small apes in sanctuaries and their natural habitats. I came to Arcus in 2021 after ten years at Synchronicity Earth, where I co-led conservation programmes; and played a key role in developing the organization’s forest grantmaking; establishing collaborative funding initiatives to amplify conservation impact; and strengthening efforts to centre indigenous rights and the revival and protection of biocultural diversity across the organization. I have a strong interest in rights based conservation, biocultural diversity and agroecology and in how such approaches can support all species to flourish. My PhD thesis (2013) used a case study of mountain gorilla conservation to explore how and why different people and their ideas are included or excluded in conservation. I have a bachelor’s degree in environment, ecology, and economics from the University of York and a master’s in environment and development from the University of Manchester. I am a Trustee of Synchronicity Earth USA.