Frances CHASE

As Director of Programmes at the Namibian Nature Foundation (NNF), I lead a dynamic and multidisciplinary team working across six strategic areas: Community-Based Organisational Strengthening (CBOS), Combating Wildlife Crime, Freshwater and Inland Fisheries, Marine and Coastal Conservation, Sustainable Agriculture, and Sustainable Forestry. Our work centres on sustainable development and conservation by integrating community empowerment, and policy innovation. My passion lies in forestry and landscape-level conservation, where I focus on sustainable forest management, bridging biodiversity data gaps, and co-developing non-timber forest product (NTFP) value chains with local communities. I hold an MSc in Plant Diversity from Reading University and a degree in Environmental Science and Geography with an honours in Physical Geography from Rhodes University.