Curiosity and co-incidence led Professor Chris Sandbrook to a life-long passion for conservation, education and understanding the role that people play in nature’s future.
The new Director of the Cambridge Conservation Research Institute (CRI) has enjoyed a rich career that includes mountain gorillas in Uganda and seeing tigers in northern India, but it’s people as a key part of the conservation puzzle that is the focus of his research.
As an undergraduate Natural Sciences student at Cambridge, Chris was firmly fixed on the biological side of conservation - the science of species, habitats and ecosystems. His then girlfriend was studying Geography. Conversations with her would start a journey that changed the way he thought about conservation forever.
She was studying conservation from a completely different angle with courses about politics, power, and the impact of conservation on local communities. It all sounded interesting and a bit strange to a Nat Sci student, so he went along to a few lectures.
“Twenty-five years later, I’m the one giving those lectures.”
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