Johannes REFISCH

Dr. Johannes Refisch works in UNEP’s (United Nations Environment Programme) Biodiversity, People and Landscapes Unit and leads the Secretariat for the Great Apes Survival Partnership (GRASP), a unique alliance of member nations, research institutions, conservation organizations, United Nations agencies and private supporters. His work covers topics related to species conservation such a protected area management, human-wildlife conflict, environmental peacebuilding, illegal trade and community benefits.

Johannes has a Diploma degree in animal ecology and has held scientific positions in Germany, Switzerland and the United States. He was co-director of the Tai Monkey Project in Cote d’Ivoire, and the results of his PhD work in 2001 resulted in a Research Conservation Award from the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) and the Centre Suisse de Recherches Scientifiques.

Johannes relocated to East Africa in 2005, and worked as a programme manager for the International Gorilla Conservation Programme (IGCP), then joined GRASP in 2006. He is a member of the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Primate Specialist Group and the IUCN Transboundary Conservation Specialist Group. He has a wide experience in natural resource management (NRM) and assisted GIZ (German Technical Cooperation), IGCP, WWF and UNEP in designing, supervising and implementing NRM projects.