WWF Indonesia has appointed a new Conservation Director, Dr. Arnold F. Sitompul (Arnold), to fill in the position vacated by Nazir Foead.
In the last 20 years, Arnold has been intensively involved in conservation works in the country. This includes developing effective conservation strategies for key protected areas in Indonesia which integrate science-based species conservation, community-based participatory approach, relevant local policies and capacity building. His area of expertise is consistently in sustainable natural resource management, wildlife conservation, community based conservation, ecosystem based land use planning and protected area management. He is familiar working with various stakeholders for consultative planning process. Furthermore, he has experience dealing with various donor agencies. Arnold has an extensive network with domestic NGOs working in natural resource conservation, transparency good governance, anti-corruption, and sustainable palm oil advocacy. He is recently interested working in transformation of corporate practices to sustainability.
During the last three years, Arnold is the Program Director of KEHATI, a national conservation grant making institution based in Jakarta. He was heavily involved on developing grant making policy, assists disbursing conservation grant and facilitate capacity building to many grantees. Arnold is instrumental in the administration and management of Debt Swap for Nature scheme under US Tropical Forest Act (TFCA) for Sumatra and Kalimantan which oversees more than 50 mio USD conservation grants channeled to domestic civil society organizations and local universities. Before joining KEHATI, Arnold has a long history working with Wildlife Conservation Society (Indonesia Program), back in 1994 to 2002.
Arnold is a biologist by training, he completed his Master degree in Wildlife Management & Conservation at School of Forest Resource, University of Georgia, Athens, Georgia, US and obtained a PhD in Environmental Conservation from University of Massachusetts, Amherst, Unites States. He was also trained for a specific skill in carbon stock assessment and emission inventory.
In compliance with the new organizational structure under our Strategic Plan, the new Conservation Director will report directly to the CEO and provides coordination for the three place-based Directors (Papua, Borneo & Sumatera, Coral Triangle) and the Policy Director. Arnold will assume prime responsibility for complex coordination needed to deliver our targeted conservation impacts, and at the same time, to lever our critical contributions to the global conservation mission of WWF.
Please join me in welcoming Dr. Arnold F. Sitompul, effective per 1 August 2014.