Contact
www.linkedin.com/in/lee-white
(LinkedIn)
Top Skills
Environmental Awareness
Scientific Writing
Conservation Issues
Honors-Awards
Commander of the Most Excellent
Order of the British Empire (CBE)
Chevalier de l'Ordre national du
mérite
Publications
A Guide To The Vegetation Of The
Lopé Reserve
Environmental Issues in Central
Africa
Hordes of Mandrills (Mandrillus
sphinx): Extreme Group Size and
Seasonal Male Presence
The effects of commercial
mechanised logging on forest
structure and composition on a
transect in the Lopé Reserve, Gabon
Guide de la végétation de la Réserve
de la Lopé
 
Lee White CBE
Minister of Water, Forests, the Sea, and Environment, charged with
Climate Change , SDGs and Land-use Planning
Libreville
Summary
I have been working in the African forest zone since 1984, initially in
West Africa (Sierra Leone and Nigeria) and in Central Africa since
1989. For 15 years I ran the Wildlife Conservation Society program
in Gabon, but also had regional responsibilities that have see me
work in Cameroon, Congo, DRC, Central African Republic, Sao
Tomé and Principé, Uganda and Rwanda. During this time I was
solely or partly responsible for raising over $10 million for the WCS
Gabon Program.
Since 2002 I have been an advisor to the President’s Office in
Gabon, in matters concerning National Parks and Ecotourism
development. I left WCS in 2008 to focus more on these
responsibilities and on the UNFCCC negotiations, as part of Gabon’s
Negotiating Team. I have always tried to incorporate science into my
conservation and sustainable development work and have published
about 70 papers and book chapters, 7 books an am the editor of
a book series on Gabon’s National Parks. My research interests
include forest history through the Pleistocene and Holocene, forestry
and forest ecology.
Experience
Gouvernement - République gabonaise
Minister of Water, Forests, the Sea, and Environment
June 2019 - Present (2 years 1 month)
Libreville, Gabon
After 20 years running the Wildlife Conservation Society Gabon Program, and
almost 10 years as Executive Secretary of Gabon's National Parks Network
I was made Minister of Forests, the Sea, and Environment, charged with
Climate Change in June 2019. Subsequently Water, SDGs and Land-use
Planning were added to my portfolio.
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University of Stirling
Honorary Professor
2010 - Present (11 years)
Stirling, Scotland, United Kingdom

African Tropical Forest Ecology Group, School of Biological Sciences

ANPN - Agence Nationale des Parcs Nationaux

Executive Secretary
2009 - 2019 (10 years)
Libreville, Gabon

Managing a network of national parks covering 11% of the country. Up to

the end of 2016 I had grown the parks agency from 100 to 650 employees
and raised over $100 millions of external funding. ANPN’s responsibilities
were extended to management of 9 RAMSAR sites, the Wonga Wongué
Presidential Reserve and the Raponda Walker Arboretum, as well as 20
marine parks and aquatic reserves covering 27% of Gabon’s ocean territory
that were created in 2016 based on a proposal to Government by ANPN.

Gouvernement - République gabonaise

Environment Senior Scientist
2009 - 2009 (less than a year)
Appointed as senior scientist in Gabon’s UNFCCC climate change negotiating
team, participating in all of the preparatory meetings after Bali and in the
Copenhagen COP, where I assisted President Bongo Ondimba in the high
level restricted negotiations that resulted in the Copenhagen Accord.

Wildlife Conservation Society

Senior Conservation Scientist
1992 - 2008 (16 years)
Libreville, Gabon

Director of WCS Gabon Program charged with establishing the WCS Gabon
Program. Under my guidance Gabon program grew from a $75,000 / year
research project to a $5 million / year conservation program, employing 200
people and active in 13 national parks.

1992-1997 – Associate Conservation Scientist, Wildlife Conservation Society,

responsible for a tropical ecology research program in the Lopé Reserve,
Gabon, and for developing a regional training and biological inventory program
in Central and West Africa (Republic of Gabon, Republic of Congo, Cameroon,
Democratic Republic of Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Nigeria).

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WWF
Project Manager
2000 - 2002 (2 years)
Libreville, Gabon

Initiated and coordinated a project to re-evaluate all existing and proposed

protected areas in Gabon with a view to creating a network of 10-15 National
Parks (project run in collaboration with Dr. André Kamden Toham of WWF-
CARPO).

This project involved conducting surveys in upwards of 20 sites throughout the

country, focusing on large mammals, birds, fish, botanical diversity and human
activities. In August 2002 recommendations from the project were adopted by
Gabon’s government with the creation of 13 National Parks by Presidential
decree.

CITES
Field Instructor
1999 - 1999 (less than a year)
Sangha, Republic of the Congo

Ran a 8-week training session in Nouabalé-Ndoki National Park, northern

Congo, for 21 trainees from six central African countries in wildlife survey and
monitoring techniques, in collaboration with the MIKE program of CITES.

European Commission
Ecofac Consultant
1993 - 1995 (2 years)
Lopé Department, Ogooué-Ivindo, Gabon

Worked as a consultant to the 'Programme de conservation et d'utilisation

rationnelle des écosystèmes forestiers d’Afrique Centrale, Composante Gabon
[Projet CCE FED DG VIII]) to produce a vegetation map of parts of the Lopé
Reserve, to undertake a study of savanna colonisation and burning with a view
to making management recommendations, and to train tourist guides.

The University of Edinburgh

Parttime Lecturer
1991 - 1991 (less than a year)
Edinburgh, Scotland, United Kingdom

Employed by the University of Edinburgh as a part-time lecturer, teaching part

of a fourth year under-graduate course in primate ecology. I also lectured to
the M.Sc. program in resource management at Edinburgh

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World Wildlife Fund

Field Researcher
1990 - 1990 (less than a year)
Minkebe, Gabon

I undertook large mammal and vegetation inventory work for World Wildlife
Fund (WWF) - Gabon in the proposed Minkebe National Park, northeastern
Gabon.

The Leverhulme Trust

Graduate Research Fellow
1988 - 1990 (2 years)
Lopé Department, Ogooué-Ivindo, Gabon

I was awarded a Leverhulme Trust Study Abroad Studentship, a Research

Fellow grant from Wildlife Conservation International (now The Wildlife
Conservation Society) and several smaller grants, to study the effects of
selective logging on plant and animal communities in the Lopé Reserve,
Gabon. From January 1989 - July 1991 I gained extensive experience of
wildlife censusing, forest botany, and forestry

Nigerian Conservation Foundation

Project Manager
1987 - 1988 (1 year)
Edo, Nigeria

Employed by the Nigerian Conservation Foundation, a Nigerian NGO, as a

Project Manager to set up and run a conservation project in Okomu Forest
Reserve, Bendel State, the location of Nigeria's first rain forest Wildlife
Sanctuary. I was responsible for anti-poaching activities to protect a sanctuary
covering 70 km2, undertaking research to produce a management plan for
the forest reserve (1200 km2) within which it is situated and developing an
education programme to stimulate local interest and understanding.

In collaboration with colleagues at the University of Benin I helped to supervise

several post-graduate studies which resulted in one PhD and two MSc Theses.

Education
The University of Edinburgh
Doctor of Philosophy - PhD, Zoology/Animal Biology · (1992 - 1992)

UCL
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Bachelor of Science - BS, Zoology/Animal Biology · (1987 - 1987)

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