African Conservation Centre is a 16-year-old East African institution founded and run by a small team of dedicated Africans.

ACC is unique because of its strong basis in science, its honoring of traditional knowledge of local people, and its targeted longterm community-based conservation projects.

The centre also houses and fosters numerous other regional research and conservation organisations.

In 2006 friends of ACC established a presence in the U.S. by founding a non-profit organization to raise funds and awareness for their work. Although registered as African Conservation Fund for fundraising purposes, in 2010 we began doing business in the U.S. and abroad as African Conservation Centre.

History

The vision behind African Conservation Centre is Dr. David Western. A native East African, Dr. Western began his career as a scientist and conservationist in 1967 studying the ecology of the Maasai Amboseli National Reserve to address a deep conflict over its status and future. 

Conservationists, insistent that overgrazing was destroying Amboseli’s famous fever tree woodland and its wildlife, were pressing the government to create a national park and exclude the Maasai. The Kajiado County Council rejected the claim and insisted on control of the reserve and its tourist revenues.

Recognizing the role of pastoralists in the ecosystem, Western studied the interplay of livestock and wildlife, and showed the importance of seasonal migrations and the drought refuges of the Amboseli basin in sustaining their abundance and coexistence. Based on these findings, he proposed that the Maasai should establish a small core park nested within a larger ecosystem that sustained the migrations and the coexistence of people and wildlife. The proposal drew in anthropologists, political scientists, and economists from the University of Nairobi’s Institute of Development Studies, the warden, Daniel Sindiyo, members of the Maasai community and the Kajiado County Council.  Thus began a lifetime commitment to community-based conservation, science, and local knowledge. Read more about the Amboseli Conservation Program . . .

Board of Directors ~ ACC-US

Left to right: Roseann Hanson, executive director, ACC-US (African Conservation Fund); Dr. Bill Yancey, chairman; Roger Snoble, board member; Dr. David Western, board member; Carolyn Green, board member; Betty Buyu, board member ACC-US (African Conservation Fund) and executive director, ACC Kenya. Not pictured: Dr. Norman Myers, board member.

Dr. William Yancey
Chairman
Los Angeles, CA, USA

Bill Yancey is currently the Assistant Dean and Director, of UCLA Continuing Dental Education and Alumni Affairs.  He has been the Director of Continuing Education for the past 14 years and took over the duties of Alumni Affairs 3 years ago.  Before that, he ran both the General Practice Residency program and started the Advanced Education in General Dentistry program at UCLA.  Prior to coming to UCLA he started a General Practice Residency Program in Denver, Colo. and had a private practice in Los Angeles.  After dental school he served as a dental officer in the U.S. Air Force for two years in Japan.  It was after his service overseas and before he started a private practice, that he fulfilled a childhood dream to go to Africa.  He spent 4 months in Kenya and Tanzania.  That experience has never left him.  He and his wife, Eva, have been back six times now, and have visited almost all the countries from Kenya to South Africa that still have wildlife. They both are dedicated to conserving these treasures of East Africa.

Mr. Roger Snoble
Board Member (Immediate Past Chairman)
Rancho Mirage, CA, USA
Roger Snoble has recently retired as the Chief Executive Officer of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority of Los Angeles County (MTA), a position he held since October 1, 2001. Mr. Snoble s career in public transportation spans over 40 years. Prior to joining MTA, he served as president/executive director of Dallas Area Rapid Transit (DART) for seven years. Before DART, Snoble served as president and general manager of the San Diego Transit Corporation where he worked 20 years, 15 as President and General manager. Roger's wife, Kit, who also assists African Conservation Fund with administrative tasks, is retired from a successful career in Mortgage Banking. The Snobles have been involved with conservation for many years being members of the San Diego Zoo and the World Wildlife Fund. Roger served on the Board of Directors of the Dallas Zoological Association and now serves on the Board of Directors of the Greater Los Angeles Zoo Association. After going on their first safari in Kenya in 1990, the Snobles returned in 1995 and 2000 to both Kenya and Tanzania. The visits inspired them to get involved in conserving the resources of East Africa.

Ms. Carolyn Greene
Secretary
Boulder, CO, USA
Ms. Greene is a conservation consultant for nonprofit organizations. She has 16 years experience managing conservation projects in the Great Plains and Rocky Mountain West. As a former program director for National Wildlife Federation, Ms. Greene was active in working with diverse communities to solve complex wildlife conservation issues.  She also specialized in helping small conservation organizations raise funds and develop best business practices.  Carolyn's passion for Kenya began after college when she spent four months working with Stefano Cheli and Liz Peacock of Cheli and Peacock Safaris.  At this time she also met Dr. David Western of the African Conservation Centre and his wife Dr. Shirley Strum. These four people and the experience of Kenya changed her life: she returned to graduate school to pursue wildlife conservation as a career. Carolyn and her husband, Kelly, have two wonderful daughters and make their home in Boulder.

Mrs. Betty Buyu
Board Member, ACC-US, and Executive Director, ACC Kenya
Nairobi, Kenya
A graduate of Biochemistry and Zoology from Nairobi University, Betty has acquired a great deal of experience from both private and public sectors. Her career started at East Africa Industries, an affiliate Unilever organization, where she held various responsibilities in both the technical and marketing fields.  From there she worked with other Blue Chip multinationals such as British American Tobacco and Sterling Health (now GlaxoSmithKline) as Marketing Director for the Kenyan companies.
In the public sector, Betty was Managing Director of the Kenya Tourist Board where she is credited with successfully re-launching Kenya as a tourist destination and raising Kenya's tourism profile locally and internationally. Betty was a full-time conultant for the Commonwealth Business Council marketing both the Commonwealth Heads of Government meeting in Kampala, Uganda and the East African Investment meeting in Rwanda. In late 2008 she joined African Conservation Centre as the Director; she brings a wealth of marketing, tourism networks and leadership expertise to ACC.

Dr. Norman Myers
Board Member
Oxford, UK
As a young man, Norman pursued a career in photojournalism and wildlife photography, which took him to Kenya where long days observing wildlife inspired him to return to school to study ecology as well as economics.  He is currently a Fellow at Green College, Oxford University; the Andrew D. White Professor at Large at Cornell University; and an advisor at the World Bank's Global Environment Facility. Dr. Myers has won many awards, including the Volvo Environment Prize and the United Nations' Sasakawa Prize. He has published more than 250 professional papers, 300 popular articles, and 15 books with sales of one million copies in 11 languages. He is the originator of the biodiversity hot-spot strategy that has generated over $300 million for conservation activities worldwide.


Dr. David Western
Board Member
Nairobi, Kenya/San Diego, CA, USA
Dr. Western is founding executive director of African Conservation Centre.  Raised in Tanzania and now a Kenyan citizen, he has spent over 37 years engaged in research in Kenya studying the interactions between livestock, wildlife, and humans, with the aim of developing conservation strategies applicable at an ecosystem scale. As former director of Kenya Wildlife Service and conservation director for Wildlife Conservation Society, Dr. Western has been active in many areas of conservation, including community-based conservation, international programs, conservation planning, ecotourism, training, directing governmental and non-governmental organizations and public education. He and his wife, Dr. Shirley Strum, spend several months each year in California, where Dr. Strum is professor of anthropology at the University of California at San Diego. Their daughter Carissa is in graduate school in conflict resolution and international peace, and their son, Guy, is currently studying at UC Santa Barbara.

Roseann Hanson
Executive Director, ACC-US (African Conservation Fund)
Ms. Hanson has 20 years experience working as an environmental communications and non-profit management specialist in community-based conservation, specializing in assisting new and growing organization in building strong programs through careful business planning, innovative communications programs, and diverse development strategies. She is a native of southern Arizona, and has worked throughout the American West, northern Mexico, and East Africa as a naturalist guide, journalist, and conservation program director and executive; in 2008 she formed the company, ConserVentures, to consolidate her diverse work in conservation, communication, and eco-tourism.  Her introduction to conservation issues in East Africa was through the Two Cowboys Project in 2002, which she participated in as a conservation representative from the American West (she is shown at left discussing ethnobotany with the director of a community-owned lodge in northern Kenya). Since then Roseann and her husband, Jonathan, have become involved in several conservation projects in northern Tanzania and have lead conservation safaris there. She and Jonathan make their home in the Sonoran Desert, an hour more or less southwest of Tucson.

Directors Emeritus

Dr. John Waithaka
Nepean, Ontario, Canada
Dr. Waithaka is former associate director at Kenya Wildlife Service, and now ecological integrity manager for Parks Canada. He is a native Kenyan and accomplished scientist. He and his family make their home now in Ontario, Canada - and are adapting slowly to things like snow.