Conservation Force
A Force for Wildlife Conservation
Board of Advisors
-
Yves LeCocq
-
Mike Frisina
-
Rupert Brown
Andre Degeorge
Our man in Africa, biologist, Andre Degeorge, assists Conservation Force throughout the continent in projects ranging from strategic planning of elephant conservation to training programs for African conservation leaders. He has over twenty-five years experience in natural resource management, planning and policy reform - mostly in Africa. He has worked with the U.S. Peace Corps, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, U.S. AID, Izaac Walton League, and managed the SCI African office from 1994 until November 2001. Andre serves as a prolific and knowledgeable volunteer field biologist, strategist, and liaison for Conservation Force throughout Africa. Andre has more than 20 years of African experience including seven years with Safari Club International as Director of all African affairs. He is the Director of the African Initiative, Department of Nature Conservation, Technikon Pretoria, RSA.
Volker Grellmann
One of Namibia's most famed hunters.
NAPHA Ombudsman*, 2000-present
Developed and teaches a professional hunting curriculum & adapted it for the Namibian Professional Hunting Association (NAPHA) to accommodate the first intake of Previously Disadvantaged Namibians (PDNs).
Awarded the prestigious “Most Active NAPHA Member Award” for his lifelong commitment not only to Namibia, but NAPHA specifically in the fields of education and big game hunting
* ANVO HUNTING SAFARIS (since 1970)
* ANVO SAFARIS NAMIBIA cc
* EAGLE ROCK-Hunting Academy (since 1974)
*ETANGO Ranch/Guestfarm (since 1991)
* International SCI-Director
* Board Member SCI-African Chapter
* Founder & President SCI-Africa Chapter I
* Vice President SCI-Namibian Chapter II
* President SCI-African Chapter (1997 -1999)
* Chairman AAB (African Advisory Board) (1997 - 2001)
* Mission Board Member SAFARICARE (USA-Humane Services Committee)
* Vice President Board and Founder Member FENATA.
* Vice President and Life Member IPHA (International Professional Hunters Association)
* Vice President NGC (National Game Committee of Namibia)
* Founder and President of NAPHA (Namibian Professional Hunting Association)
* Chairman Ethics Committee (NAPHA)
* Member Delegation CIC-Namibia (International Hunting Council) since 1975
* Honorary Game Warden (1979 - 1997)
* Appointed Advisor toKxoe's Chiefs Council/Western Caprivi (1993 - 1997)
* Member PHASA (Professional Hunters Association South Africa)
* Member SCI-Renewable Wildlife Resources Committee.
* Member Dallas & Houston Safari Clubs
* Member GAME COIN (Game Conservation International)
* Chairman/Member of various other Committees &Sub Committees
* Honorary Life Member -NAPHA - from 2000 - 2001
* Founder Member and Life Member APHA (African Professional Hunters Association)
*Exc Board Director and Specialist Consultant to NATH (Namibian Academy for Training in Hospitality). Vice Chairman of the Board 2000 - 2006.
* Director & Chief Lecturer Hunting Academy "Eagle Rock" (since 1974). » Chairman NAMATANGA Conservancy
* Master Measurer - SCI & Measurer Rowland Ward.
* Ombudsman - NAPHA - since 2000
* Advisory Committee Member of the Politech of NAMIBIA - Dep. Nature Conservation/ Natural Resources & Tourism
* Active & contributing to Environmental & National planning.
* HRD Advisory Committee of the NTB (since 2003)
1989 - Recognition for Outstanding Contribution to Conservation (EWT)
1995 - the Outstanding International Professional Hunter award (SCI)
1996 - the Recognition award (IPHA)
1997 - the Presidents Award (SCI-USA)
2005 - Outstanding member of the year award - NAPHA
2006 - Conservationist of the year award -NAPHA
2006 - Conservation award for Cheetah Conservation (CCF)
Greg Simons
Greg Simons graduated with a bachelor’s degree in Wildlife and Fisheries Sciences from Texas A&M University in 1987, with emphasis on wildlife ecology.
After graduation, Greg immediately formed Wildlife Systems, Inc., which is a company he still owns and operates today. This company currently operates hunting and wildlife programs on over 800,000 acres of private land in Texas, scattered over many different properties across the state. WSI has been featured in many magazine periodicals and on numerous television shows. This company was named Dodge Outfitter of the Year in 2003 from a cast of over 450 hunting operations in North America. He has also worked with various hunting programs in several other states including Colorado, New Mexico, Oklahoma, and Utah, and various foreign countries, including South Africa, Zimbabwe, Zambia, New Zealand, Canada, and Mexico. Greg is also a partner in Wildlife Consultants, LLC, a company specializing in providing technical assistance for wildlife and land-related needs to landowners, bank trust groups, and others. He is former co-owner of Texas Hunting Directory.
Greg has been actively involved with working on various regulatory and statutory matters relating to wildlife and hunting, especially at the state level, and has helped shape laws through his involvement with the Texas legislature.
Greg has given presentations around the country, on topics ranging from entrepreneurial areas within the hunting business, hunt marketing, customer service strategies, harvest photography, wildlife management topics, roles that NGOs play in conservation, hunters’ role in conservation, civic engagement, youth leadership development, and various other topics.
Greg is a past President of Student Chapter of The Wildlife Society (TAMU), past officer in the Texas Chapter TWS, current President of Texas Wildlife Association, serves on the White-tailed Deer Advisory Committee for the State of Texas, is currently on the Board of Directors for the San Angelo Chamber of Commerce, is the past San Angelo CVB Board Chairman, serves on the Legacy Advisory Committee for Wildlife and Fisheries Sciences Department at Texas A&M University, and has served on many other appointed committees. Greg is also one of the Co-Founders of West Texas Deer Study Group, which is now known as Texas Deer Study Group. He also participated on the Wildlife Conclave Team at TAMU for 3 years, serving as captain on 2 of those teams.
Greg feels that natural resource literacy is perhaps the biggest challenge facing our wildlife and hunting communities. “As society grows more distant from our rural environment, appreciation for wildlife and natural resources tend to diminish. With this, comes a cultural paradigm that places little value on the conservation mechanisms, such as hunting, that are integral in sustaining these resources. We must do a better job of creating relevance for wildlife and natural resources, by positioning education in a fashion where our citizenry can grasp fundamental values of the important role that wildlife plays in a healthy society, and only then can we have an intelligent conversation regarding the role that hunting plays in conservation.”
Greg, along with his wife and daughter reside in San Angelo, while their son is attending college at Texas A&M University.
Louis Serratti
Louis Serratti is an accountant by profession. He acts as volunteer liaison with the Paraguay authorities and principle habitat and wildlife conservation NGOs in Paraguay. He has negotiated the creation of conservancies in Paraguay totaling nearly one million acres to conserve habitat for Jaguar and a conservation ethic.
Ron Thomson
Ron Thomson is an ex-game warden and retired national parks board director. He has 46 years experience in southern African wildlife management affairs including 28 years of full-time service in various national park departments and 3 years working as a professional hunter. He now writes books "to create a better informed public" - better informed, that is, about the realities of wildlife management. One of his books has been prescribed reading for the Higher Diploma in Nature Conservation for the last 15 years - an academic course offered to serving wildlife field officers by the Tshwane University of Technology. For more than 20 years he was a Member of the British Institute of Biology and a Chartered Biologist for the European Union.
He has vast experience in both the theoretical AND the practical application of big game management - especially elephant management.
Two of his past posts were: (1) The Provincial Game Warden i/c. of what is now Zimbabwe's Hwange National Park - one of Africa's biggest and most prestigious game reserves; and (2) The Director of the Bophuthatswana National Parks Board (in the 1980s).
Books by Ron Thomson:
-
Managing our Wildlife Heritage, 2007
-
A Game Warden's Report: The State of Wildlife in Africa at the Start of the Third Millennium, 2003
-
The adventures of Shadrek: Southern Africa's most infamous elephant poacher, 2001
-
Mahohboh: Elephants and Elephant Hunting in South Central Africa, 1997
-
The Wildlife Game, 1992
-
On Wildlife Conservation, 1986
Currently Ron is writing his big game hunting memoirs which will be released across several volumes, the first to available in 2008.
He has followed the current controversy about elephant culling in Kruger National Park since its inception and he attended the Great Elephant Indaba at Berg-en-Dal last year representing the South African Hunters Association (of which he is NOT a member).
An Open letter to The Minister of Environmental Affairs & Tourism from Ron Thomson.
To Cull or Not to Cull The Elephants of Kruger National Park
Dear Sir,
The purpose of this letter is to urge you to resume elephant culling in Kruger National Park. In my opinion Kruger is carrying three times too many elephants and the longer culling is delayed the more will the park’s biological diversity be depleted. Every responsible-thinking South African understands that Kruger National Park was created to maintain ALL the endemic wild plant and wild animal life forms that the natural ecosystems can support. It was never supposed to be a zoo for the uncontrolled proliferation of elephants.
To help you understand the validity of the pro-culling reasoning, and to help you recognise the irrationality of the anti-culling arguments, I now relate an historical sequence of events, and a few ecological principles, to put this controversy in better perspective.
In 1980 the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) published its mission statement which it called The World Conservation Strategy (WCS). This important protocol formed the basis of the many National Conservation Strategies (NCSs), the world over, that followed in the 1980s. This included the National Conservation Strategy of South Africa.
The WCS is the ONLY blue print in existence that spells out the fact that man and nature MUST work in synergy if both are to survive. This impels man, inter alia, to establish a symbiotic relationship with the natural world – each gaining survival benefits from their interaction with the other.
One of the cornerstone recommendations of the WCS is that man must “use” the renewable natural resources of the world – both those that are domesticated/cultivated and those that are wild – for his own benefit, in a sustainable manner.
Since the 1960s a Non-Governmental Organisation (NGO) movement was established which has been called The “Green” Movement. This comprises three elements: (1). TRUE environmentalists – who wish to ensure that man’s actions on earth maintains the planet in a habitable condition for both man and nature to live in; (2). TRUE animal welfarists who wish to make sure that man’s “use” of animals, when they are alive, is humane – and who wish to make sure that there is no cruelty involved in their killing, when the killing of animals is deemed necessary; and (3). animal rightists – who believe that man has NO RIGHT AT ALL to “use” or to “kill” animals (any animals) for his own benefit, or for any other purpose.
TRUE environmentalism is something that society should support – because to do otherwise is suicidal. TRUE animal welfarism is also something that society should support – because it strives to ensures that man behaves in a civilised manner when he “uses” animals.
Animal Rights-ism, on the other hand, should be rejected by responsible societies (AND BY ALL GOVERNMENTS). This should happen because it’s purpose in life is to negate the achievement of the objectives of the WCS, and because it works towards negating the achievement of the objectives of the NCSs of every sovereign state in the world, too. It’s ideology, therefore, works against what is best for the natural world and what is best for mankind.
Ricardo Longoria
Ricardo Longoria has been a sportsman his entire life.
As a child, Ricardo often spent weekends with his father at their family’s ranch in Northern Mexico, “Rancherías”, one of North America’s original game preserves. In the mid-50’s, to facilitate the importation of exotic animals from more than a dozen countries, a partnership was created between the Longoria family and the San Antonio Zoo. Through this partnership, the founding stockwere imported to the United States and donated to the Zoo, with the offspring being used to populate “Rancherías”. This is where Ricardo’s love for wildlife conservation and exotic game ranching was born.
This love is equaled only by his passion for bowhunting. During his lifetime, Ricardo has had the opportunity tobowhunt on six continents, collecting a wide variety of big game species. He especially enjoys the challenge of bowhunting at high altitudes for sheep and goats as well as bowhunting for a variety of dangerous game animals, including Africa’s “Big Five” and many the world’s “Wild Oxen” and “Predators”.
In recent years, Ricardo has focused much of his conservation efforts on the creation of “El Sueño”, his family’s South Texas game preserve. It is home to many different species of exotic animals, including endangered species such as the Arabian Oryx, Barasingha Deer, Eld’s Deer and Red Lechwe along with the native Texas White-tailed Deer, Rio Grande Turkey, Collared Peccary and others. His family’s foundation, the Longoria-Wright Foundation, is an active supporter of Conservation Force, in particular the “Ranching for Restoration” program. Ricardo espouses the belief that utilizing revenues generated from the hunting of exotic animals in North America to fund conservation projects for these same species in the wild not only helps conserve these species, but also helps legitimize the hunting of exotic animals in North America.
Don Causey
Don Causey
Don Causey is founder and president of Oxpecker Enterprises, Inc., the company that founded and published for many years The Hunting Reportand The Angling Report newsletters. He continues to publish The Angling Report, overseeing all aspects of the publishing company's functions, including the editing and production of the newsletter.
The Hunting Report, which he sold in August 2008, has been in continuous publication for 27 years, offering international hunters a monthly briefing of new opportunities and challenges worldwide. The publication was widely viewed as the authority on world hunting, and it used its unique "bully pulpit" to champion ethical behavior on the part of hunting outfitters, hunting agents and hunting clients.
An avid sportsman, Causey has fished and hunted all over the world, and he has been involved in every major development affecting hunting and fishing since 1981 when he began publishing The Hunting Report. Prior to that, Causey served as executive editor of Outdoor Life magazine. Before that, he was a reporter for the prestigious News and Observer newspaper in Raleigh, North Carolina, and a freelance writer for major national and international publications. Causey earned a bachelors and masters degree in English from the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill. He is a former National Rifle Association board member, and an active member of Safari Club International and other similar organizations.
Dr. Dale E. Toweill
Dr. Dale E. Toweill has spent more than 30 years managing wildlife in the West. As the statewide leader of trophy species programs in Idaho for the past decade, he has managed programs for bighorn sheep, mountain goats, moose and grizzly bears and supervises statewide management of waterfowl and upland game. He has also directed public lands policy for Idaho for more than a decade, managed the Idaho Wildlife Health Laboratory, and conducted and published research on bighorn sheep, elk, mule deer, pronghorns, mountain lions, and many other species.
Dale is perhaps best-known for his award-winning books about elk and bighorn sheep. North American Elk: Ecology and Management (published by Smithsonian Press) has been called “perhaps the best book on a single species ever written,” and Return of Royalty: the Wild Sheep of North America was recipient of the international Prix Excellence award presented by the Conseil de la Chasse et tu la Conservation, the international hunter's organization, in 2005. He has written a number of other books, such as Rocky Mountain Bighorn Sheep (for the National Bighorn Sheep Interpretive Center in Duboise, Wyoming) and Desert Bighorn, and was a contributing author to Perspectives on Biodiversity for the National Research Institute of the National Academy of Sciences. In addition, Dale has contributed chapters to many books including the Wildlife Techniques Manual published by The Wildlife Society.
In addition to hundreds of papers on technical aspects of wildlife research, Dale is a member of the Outdoor Writers Association of America and has written many popular articles about hunting and the outdoors, most illustrated with his own photographs of wildlife and wild places. Dale has also written several scripts for the award-winning television series “Leupold’s Big Game Profiles” presented by the Boone & Crockett Club on the Outdoor Channel.
Not an academic, Dr. Toweill is a hands-on manager and avid hunter who has successfully hunted throughout North America as well as Africa, Australia, and Europe. He has harvested all varieties of North American wild sheep and has several of his North American trophies listed in Records of North American Big Game. As a passionate hunter, he is very familiar with the critical role that hunting plays in wildlife conservation around the world.
Well-known among professional wildlife managers, Dale has been a member of The Wildlife Society since 1969 and was among the first recognized as a Certified Wildlife Biologist by that group in 1982. He served as of the Western Association of Fish and Wildlife Agencies to the Committee on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES), and on national review panels dealing with critical and complex land management issues including climate change, forest ecosystem management, and a national review of big game habitat on public lands. Dale also spent more than a decade dealing with public land management policy and state and national legislation on environmental affairs. representative
Dale is especially interested in conservation and management of African wildlife (he has visited Africa nearly 20 times) and the worldwide conservation of wild sheep.
Danny Moran
Mr. Moran is one of the founding Directors of Ecosystem Renewal. He has over 31 years of experience including land management, environmental restoration, and development of wetland mitigation banks throughout the southeast. As a Director of EcoSystem Renewal, LLC, Mr. Moran’s duties include new project origination, business administration, customer relations, and overseeing marketing and operations for the Company’s projects in Louisiana and Texas. In this position, Mr. Moran interacts daily with the technical consultants and staff, vendor and contractors, and with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and other federal, state and local regulatory agencies. Current projects require interaction with the USACOE’s Vicksburg District, New Orleans District, Galveston District, and Ft. Worth District.
Mr. Moran’s key strengths are in the areas of business administration, project management with full P & L responsibility including project implementation, construction management, land acquisition and development. Mr. Moran also has extensive experience in project analysis and due diligence, financial analysis, and maximizing returns on investments. Mr. Moran currently holds the position of President of Holcomb Resources, Inc., a land and timber company, as well as the Managing Member of several partnerships with land and timber holdings in Louisiana and Texas, Mr. Moran’s current duties include acting as the Managing Member of a 7,800 are project which includes wetland mitigation and site restoration, timber harvesting, and other potential land uses.
Mr. Moran has been involved with the development of various stages of over 12 mitigation bank projects and other restoration projects. Utilizing his construction management and land development background, Mr. Moran has performed land restorations, strategic contract negotiations, coordinated with numerous local, state, and federal agencies in multiple states for bank development, provided site location analysis for restoration sites, and is involved with the sales and marketing of wetland mitigation credits.