Dr Daphne Kerhoas

Senior Project Manager (International)

About me

I studied biology in my BSc (Tours in France and Bucknell university in the USA) and MSc (Paris XIII), with a focus on animal behaviour. My first work placements were to collect behavioural data on wild primates in Costa Rica for a year and Nigeria for six months. I completed my PhD in Germany (Max Planck Institute) with two years based in Indonesia investigating male-infant interaction in crested macaques. Throughout these experiences, I have been directly involved in a variety of conservation issues and motivated conservation actions, including environmental education and dialogues with government representatives.

After my PhD, I decided to orientate my career towards biodiversity protection. I worked for 10 years at Bristol Zoological Society as higher education and conservation manager. This included managing project leaders carrying out conservation initiatives in Cameroon, Equatorial Guinea and Costa Rica. I led the Philippines conservation programme with the Negros bleeding-heart dove as a flagship species. Our team monitored wildlife population and illegal hunting and implemented alternative livelihood to alleviate the pressure on the ecosystem. Alongside the conservation work, I supervised MSc students and taught on several degrees and co-created a new MSc degree in Conservation Leadership with the University of West England University.

My role

I am the Senior Project Manager for Cambodia within the Conservation Directorate. My role is to oversee our community-based conservation programme and ensure that it contributes towards WWT’s long-term strategic objectives. We have two main sites, Anlung Pring and Boeung Prek Lapouv, and a team of dedicated and qualified staff in Cambodia as well as international partners to help us carry out our activities.

I manage various projects to ensure they have a true conservation impact, as well as develop a strategy plan for the future. My day-to-day work is to meet with our team in Cambodia and support them to achieve various objectives to help protect wetlands and their biodiversity (e.g. water quality monitoring, restore ephemeral pools, build a wetland educational centre, introduce local farmer to a more sustainable variety of rice, train community member to run an ecotourism project).

Experience and interests

• Project development and management
• Community-based conservation
• Conservation impact
• Conservation planning
• Scientific communication
• Language: French, English (and rusty German)

Publications

• Mynott HI, Lee DC, Santillan RA, Schwarz CJ, Tacud B, Fernandez AD, Kerhoas D. 2021. Population assessment and habitat associations of the Visayan Hornbill Penelopides panini in Northwest Panay, Philippines. Avian Research. 12 (67) https://doi.org/10.1186/s40657-021-00303-3
• Fernández D, Kerhoas D, Dempsey A, Billany J, Argirova E, McCabe G. 2021. The current status of the world’s primates: mapping threats to understand priorities for primate conservation. International Journal of Primatology. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10764-021-00242-2
• Rode-Margono, J., Ward, M., Sy, E.Y., Rafael, E.F., Kerhoas, D., Datta, A., Werner, N., Schwarz, C.J., Sweeney, R., Leus, K., Raghavan, R. Gibson, C. (Eds). 2021. Western Visayas Conservation Workshop: Final Report. IUCN SSC Conservation Planning Specialist Group, Apple Valley, MN. https://www.cpsg.org/content/western-visayas-conservation-workshop-final-report
• Mynott HI, Abrahams M and Kerhoas D. 2020. Negros Bleeding-heart Gallicolumba keayi prefers dense understorey vegetation and dense canopy cover, and species distribution modelling shows little remaining suitable habitat. Bird Conservation International. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0959270920000611
• Kerhoas, D., Perwitasari-Farajallah, D., Agil, M., Widdig, A., & Engelhardt, A. 2014. Social and ecological factors influencing offspring survival in wild macaques. Behavioral Ecology, 25(5). https://doi.org/10.1093/beheco/aru099