Meet The Team

Studied biology in Kiel and Aberdeen. His 30 years work experience includes nine years with WWF Germany, two years at the University in Bremen, and seventeen years with the United Nations Environmental Programme (UNEP) in Cambridge at the Centre for Biodiversity (UNEP- WCMC) and the past eight years as adviser to the Manfred-Hermsen Foundation. His main expertise is wetland conservation and land use management in particular in the context of coastal wetlands, peatlands, agriculture and arctic ecosystems. He has been working mostly in wet grassland areas in North and East Germany, Poland and Russia, on river restoration issues across Europe and recently focused on coastal wetlands and its migratory waterbirds. Presently he is involved in ecological surveys of coastal wetlands in Myanmar and developing protected areas in this large SE Asian country He is also coordinating the conservation of the globally threatened Spoon-billed Sandpiper since 2004. He has been co-operating with WWF and CAFF on Arctic issues since 1996 and gained experience in managing various international research projects, participating in as many as 14 expeditions into the Russian Arctic, and leading search expeditions in India Bangladesh, Myanmar and Kamchatka. He has been a nature tour guide for SAGA and is currently leading tours for the German based Company Birding Tours to China and Myanmar. He is currently the Coordinator of the EAAFP SBS Task Force.

Hilger Lemke (M. Sc.) studied applied bio-geography in Trier, Germany and biology in Lund, Sweden. Since early university stage his broad interest for ornithology has led to various expeditions and research activities across the globe including Alaska, Canada, Portugal and Azerbaidschan. He repeatedly participated in different research projects dealing with various bird groups covering seabirds, waders, raptors and songbirds using advanced field techniques like colour-ringing, geolocators or blood sampling. Also, during university times he started to work as freelance biologist for both his own company and different consultancy bureaus. Through this ongoing work on environmental impact studies (e.g. wind turbines, power lines), surveys of breeding, resting and migrating birds both at land and off-shore and an ongoing project on meadow bird conservation he receives first-hand experience in both practical field work and data analysis. During his degree projects at Lund University he deepened his expertise for bird migration where he analysed tracking data of a songbird and raptor species. A special interest in waders has brought him into contact with the International Wader Study Group (IWSG). Since 2012 he supports the Sanderling Project within the IWSG as co-supervisor of the juvenile percentage data collection and analysis. Also, through the IWSG a link to the the Spoon-billed Sandpiper Task Force was established since 2014, when a first expedion was joined to the overwintering-grounds in Bangladesh and further ones to the Chinese stop-over sites at the Yellow Sea followed in 2015 and 2016. Several reports and (international) publications underscore his effort in pushing the conservation of migratory birds forward

Responding to the growing need for conservation and passion for wildlife, Sayam U. Chowdhury has been working in behavioral ecology, research and conservation of globally threatened species in Bangladesh and abroad for the past 13 years, especially on Critically Endangered birds including Spoon-billed Sandpiper, Baer’s Pochard, Endangered Masked Finfoot, Pallas’s Fish Eagle and vanishing riverine birds. An undergraduate degree in Environmental Science and MPhil degree from the University of Cambridge have complimented his career, helping him to further understand the complex conservation problems that migratory birds face and to find science-based solutions through rigorous research.

He is interested in the ecology and conservation of threatened species in Asia, and in applied issues of understanding and mitigating the impact of ecological changes on biodiversity, especially in a densely populated country like Bangladesh. The intertidal mudflats of Asia are key habitats, supporting more than 50 million migratory birds, including 33 globally threatened species. His work is primarily focused on migratory shorebirds of the East Asian–Australasian Flyway, and developing tools for managing coastal habitats and identifying mitigation measures in response to climate change. He is currently pursuing PhD in Zoology at the University of Cambridge.

Engineer of tropical agronomics (specialist for tropical fauna and flora) with more than 14 years professional experience in estimating forest stocks, inventories and research of the mammal- and invertebrate fauna and the protection of the biological resources of Western Africa.

Author of several scientific and technical publications, member of the “Odonata Specialist Group”, an expert-team of the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN), of the “American Arachnological Society” (AAS) and of several national nature conservation associations (working group evaluation of environment impact studies at the “Agence béninoise pour l’environnement”, the “Association Béninoise d’Evaluation Environnementale”, etc.).

In addition he participated in studies about whales and dolphins as well as sea turtles at the Atlantic coast of Benin. He speaks French and English.