Simon Pooley

Lead, Coexistence WG

Dr Simon Pooley is the Lambert Reader in Human-Wildlife Coexistence at Birkbeck University of London, where he directs the MSc Environment & Sustainability. Simon is an interdisciplinary researcher working with international colleagues and institutions towards fostering human-wildlife coexistence. Simon is an Honorary Researcher in the School of Life Science, University of KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa, a member of the India-based Coexistence Consortium, Visiting Researcher with the Zoological Society of London, and Senior Research Associate, Centre for World Environmental History, University of Sussex, UK.
A member of the IUCN HWCCSG since its founding by Alexandra Zimmermann in 2016, Simon currently leads the working group Understanding Coexistence. Simon also leads the Living with Crocodilians Working Group for the IUCN Crocodile Specialist Group. Simon’s research spans the challenges of interdisciplinarity; ecological, historical and cultural dimensions of human-wildlife interactions; and research, policy and management of wildfires. His latest book is Discovering the Okapi (JHUP, 2025).