Inaoyom Imong

Inaoyom Imong has over 20 years of experience leading biodiversity conservation and sustainable development projects in Nigeria with a focus on the highly biodiverse transboundary Cross River landscape region between Southeast Nigeria and Southwest Cameroon. He is currently the Deputy Country Director of the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) Nigeria program. He has worked extensively with protected area authorities, local communities and other stakeholders in the Cross River landscape and has led community-based conservation initiatives in the landscape since 2006 and cocoa landscape collaboration efforts over the past six years.  His interests include protected area management, community-based conservation, sustainable livelihood programs, and ecological monitoring. Inaoyom Imong has a PhD in Conservation Biology (Primatology) from the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Germany and a MSc in Conservation Biology from the A. P. Leventis Ornithological Research Institute, University of Jos, Nigeria. He received the GRASP-Ian Redmond Conservation Award in 2013, and the Whitley Award in 2015. He is a member of the Scientific Commission of the Great Apes Survival Partnership (GRASP), a member of the IUCN/SSC Primate Specialist Group, and a founding member of the African Primatological Society (APS).