Susan Canney has worked on a variety of conservation projects across Africa, Asia and Europe, in research, strategy, policy and governance to make space for nature; 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/Biome Conservation, directing Mali Elephant Landscapes to develop a community-led integrated model of human-elephant co-existence that has endured despite lawlessness, conflict and insurgency and provided the basis for landscape restoration.

She is a Research Associate of the Department of Zoology, Oxford University, a Trustee of Tusk Trust, a Tusk Conservation Award Judge, a Board Member of Sahara Conservation, 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.