Andrea Athanas

Andrea is the African Wildlife Foundation’s Director in Europe, responsible for engaging Africa’s strategic partners to build a future in which human development includes thriving wildlife and extensive wild lands as a cultural and economic asset for Africa’s future generations.

Having spent her career working on the conservation, sustainable use and equitable sharing of benefits from biodiversity, Andrea’s latest decade has been dedicated to designing and supporting teams to deliver integrated conservation and development approaches in African landscapes. Her portfolio spans from Ethiopia to Zimbabwe and from Kenya to Senegal. While living with her young family in Tanzania, she designed and fundraised for programs linking agriculture development to forest and wetland conservation in the Kilombero valley and Mbeya highlands, critical elephant habitats and the source of water for millions of people downstream. Bringing experience linking business into the biodiversity agenda, Andrea continues to engage at a global level on technical issues such as integrated impact assessments, biodiversity offsets, conservation enterprises, incentive measures, and financing. Most recently, she has been designing sustainable and lasting finance for Africa’s protected area networks, and linking the private sector into landscape conservation efforts.

Andrea holds a Master’s in Environmental Assessment and Evaluation from the London School of Economics and a Bachelor’s degree in Economics and English from the University of Michigan. She is a passionate backcountry and downhill skier and loves to be on the stand-up-paddleboard.

Article: Revaluing biodiversity amid a global health and economic crisis

 

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