Dr Siân Waters

Founder and Director of Barbary Macaque Awareness and Conservation

I am practising biosocial conservationist specialising in the human dimension of conservation. I am the founder and director of Barbary Macaque Awareness and Conservation, an inclusive conservation project based in Morocco. I am an honorary research fellow in the Department of Anthropology of Durham University UK and also act as a consultant on the human dimension of conservation for NGOs and donor organisations focusing on conservation work around marginalised and remote communities and environmental justice issues.

I have been working with wildlife for over 20 years, specialising in primate and carnivore conservation issues and am passionate about the benefits of using ethnographic data to drive conservation project strategy. 

My current research focuses on the complex facets of human-primate coexistence. I am vice-chair of the IUCN Primate Specialist Group’s Section on Human-Primate Interactions (SHPI). We are currently drafting guidelines for best practice primate tourism (excluding large apes) and best practice guidelines for portrayal of primates on social media for primatologists.

Twitter: @sianswaters

Other Speakers

Dr. Inza Koné

President, African Primatological Society || Director General of the Centre Suisse de Recherches Scientifiques, Côte d’Ivoire