Ann is a conservation ecologist, with more than 30 years of experience working in the Caribbean, mainly Jamaica, in the government and non-governmental sectors. Her special interests include wildlife conservation; participatory management planning for protected areas; environmental education and interpretation; project design, proposal writing and management; and capacity building for NGOs. Her role as a director of BirdsCaribbean and the co-chair of their working groups for Seabirds and Monitoring, has provided opportunities to work with NGOs across the region. She is the lead author of “A Photographic Guide to the Birds of Jamaica” published by Christopher Helm in 2009. Ann has been working on management and monitoring of protected areas in general and MPAs since 1979, as a staff member of the Natural Resources Conservation Department, as a consultant and as Director of Conservation for The Nature Conservancy in Jamaica. Ann completed her Ph.D. on seabird conservation and management, has written management plans for the Portland Bight Protected Area, and worked with the Caribbean Coastal Area Management Foundation (C-CAM) on sustainable wetlands, including monitoring and the development of sustainable livelihoods through tourism. Ann is one of the organisational strengthening mentors for (C-CAM) to which she continues to lend her expertise in problem solving, providing technical support for protected area management and promoting participatory approaches.
“I believe that CSOs offer the best and most effective means to deliver conservation on the ground, and to work properly they need to be strong institutionally.”