Meet the Team

Daniel Marnewick

Manager: Regional Conservation Programme
daniel.marnewick@birdlife.org.za

Daniel has over 20 years of professional experience and leadership in the conservation sector, predominantly working in South Africa’s foremost conservation NGOs and 14 of which have been with BirdLife South Africa. Daniel’s extensive knowledge and experience exhibit a diversity of skill sets on a range of integrated fields, including: habitat protection and management, spatial planning, stakeholder facilitation, grassroots engagement, community development, strategic conservation planning, integration with national priorities, fundraising, and Multi-lateral Environmental Agreements.

Daniel manages BirdLife South Africa’s Regional Conservation Programme which aims to assist selected African countries with i) the effective identification and conservation of Red List [threatened] species and ecosystems, ii) identifying the most important places to conserve these threatened biodiversity, i.e. Key Biodiversity Areas (KBAs), and iii) using frameworks such as Privately Protected Areas (PPAs) and Other Effective Areas-Based Conservation Areas (OECMs) to safeguard these places.

Daniel is also leading on globally significant work through his chairing of the KBA Community, developing a global methodology to identify, report and support OECMs, and integrating these two global standards into international agreements, e.g. the Convention on Biological Diversity’s Post-2020 Biodiversity Strategy.

Dr Simeon Bezeng Bezeng

Project Manager: Regional Red List and KBA
simmy.bezeng@birdlife.org.za

Bezeng began his career in Cameroon where he was received a BSc in Botany and Environmental Sciences. He then moved to the South African and completed his PhD in plant invasion biology at the University of Johannesburg in 2016.

Bezeng is actively involved in the development of the IUCN’s species and ecosystem red listing and the identification of Key Biodiversity Areas in Africa. He is also a member on the SSC Steering and Red List Committees and the National Red List Alliance.

Bronwyn Maree

Project Manager: East Atlantic Flyway Initiative (EAFI)
bronwyn.maree@birdlife.org.za

Bronwyn holds an MSc in Ichthyology and Fisheries Science and has over 10 years of conservation experience, spanning the marine environment (with the Albatross Task Force) and terrestrial environment (focusing on human-wildlife conflict on the urban edge).

She manages a project which is dedicated to support regional and global conservation initiatives aligned with the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds’ (RSPB’s) EAFI project and assist the RSPB with the revision and implementation of the BirdLife EAFI strategy. A comprehensive suite of projects are being implemented along the East Atlantic Flyway through the EAFI project, with a focus on species research and monitoring, identifying Key Biodiversity Areas and using Other Effective Area Based Conservation Measures (OECMs) to safeguard key migratory stopover sites. The EAFI is a multi-stakeholder project consisting of BirdLife country partners from across the flyway, including Europe, north, west and southern Africa.

Hiral Naik

Admin Assistant: Regional Conservation Programme and Policy & Advocacy
hiral.naik@birdlife.org.za

Hiral completed her MSc in Ecology, Environment and Conservation from the University of Witwatersrand in 2017, with a focus on evolutionary ecology. As a researcher and a conservationist, Hiral has spent some time working with several environmental non-profit organisations to understand the role of biodiversity in different environments and communicate that knowledge to others. Her skills range from field work, research and communication to marketing, writing and environmental education.

Hiral assists in various administration tasks within the Regional Conservation Programme including marketing and media, communications, fundraising and database management.