Rene BEYERS

Rene is a conservation biologist at the University of British Columbia with extensive international experience in wildlife management, ecological monitoring, and ecosystem recovery. He has a broad interest in conservation ecology and is concerned with the decline of wildlife species and its consequences for the functioning of ecosystems. He is particularly interested in the recovery of degraded ecosystems through rewilding and is an active member of the Rewilding Thematic Group at the IUCN Commission for Ecosystem Management. Before coming to Canada, Rene lived and worked in Africa and Asia. He started his career as a medical doctor in Europe and Burundi. He worked as a wildlife biologist in Tanzania, a wildlife and park manager in Gabon, and an environmental and wildlife consultant in Thailand. He helped set up the CITES-MIKE (Monitoring Illegal Killing of Elephants) program, which keeps track of elephant populations and the illegal killing of elephants in Africa and Asia. He spent much of his time in Africa in the field surveying elephants and other mammals and training people in field work and data analysis. He has a PhD from UBC studying the distribution and conservation of elephants, okapi, and other wildlife species in Central Africa.