Dr Susan Canney

Susan Canney has worked on a variety of nature conservation projects across Africa, Asia and Europe, in research, strategic management, policy and governance; and as a research officer for the UK Government’s independent adviser on sustainable development at the Green College Centre for Environmental Policy & Understanding.

She has worked in central Mali since 2003, initially with Save the Elephants, and since 2006 with WILD Foundation, directing the Mali Elephant Project to develop an integrated model of human-elephant co-existence that has endured despite lawlessness, conflict and insurgency.

Her chief interest is how to bring ecological literacy to human decision making so that our actions are guided by a right relationship to the planet. Her work involves using systems perspectives and collaborative approaches to find sustainable solutions to the co-existence of humans and nature.

She is a Research Associate of the Department of Zoology, Oxford University, a Trustee of Tusk Trust, a Tusk Conservation Award Judge, a member of the Sahara Conservation Fund’s Science Committee, a member of the IUCN African Elephant Specialist Group (and their conflict taskforce), and has co-authored a book on "Conservation" for Cambridge University Press.