We are a global network of conservationists, lawyers, scientists economists and artists interested in how existing liability laws can be strategically used to serve conservation. Coordinated out of the Lancaster Environment Centre at Lancaster University, we are building on partnerships developed during the WILDS Project funded by the UK Government through the Illegal Wildlife Trade Challenge Fund. Collectively, we lead unique legal research, strategic courtroom litigation, judicial and prosecutor education, and support to plaintiffs around the world.

Core & Executive Team

Dr Jacob Phelps
Co-Founder & Executive Director

  • Jacob Phelps is an environmental social scientist with a particular interest in policy, legal and governance dimensions of tropical biodiversity conservation and sustainable resource management. Trained in geography and natural sciences, he draws on a wide range of methods and approaches.

    Jacob is the Co-Founder and Co-Executive Director of the Conservation-Litigation.org network. He serves as Senior Technical Advisor at the Wildlife Conservation Society Indonesia Programme, supporting conservation projects across the country. He retains an affiliation with the Lancaster Environment Centre at Lancaster University, where he was Senior Lecturer from 2015-2023. Jacob is also Co-Chair of the IUCN SSC Orchid Specialist Group - Global Trade Programme, and am Co-Founder of the Nepal Conservation Research Fellowship.

Maribel Rodriguez Valero
Co-Founder & Executive Director

  • Maribel is Legal Director of Law and Wildlife. She is an environmental lawyer with over 15 years of experience in EU, comparative and international law, both in the public and in the private sector. The last 8 years of her career have been devoted to wildlife trade through the comparative analysis of international and domestic laws addressing IWT. She holds a Law Degree from the University of Sevilla (Spain), two LLMs on Environmental and Business Law (KUL and Radboud Nijmegen University) and is a proud alumni of the 2014-2015 promotion of the CITES Master. Maribel speaks Spanish, Portuguese, English, and French fluently.

    ​​At Law and Wildlife she works on all legal issues: directs and supervises research, manages the team, and conducts legal analysis.​

Rika Fajrini
Senior Lawyer & Legal Researcher

  • Rika is a legal researcher at the Indonesian Centre of Environmental Law. She received a Monbukagakusho scholarship and earned her M.GES degree from Kyoto University in 2017 with a research focus on genetic resource utilization and traditional knowledge. Previously, Rika obtained her law degree from the University of Indonesia with a focus on law, society and development studies.

    At ICEL, Rika has been involved in law enforcement and community capacity building programs as well as forest and land governance policy advocacy. Rika plays an important role in research and advocacy on environmental funding, liability for environmental losses, spatial planning policies, and indigenous/local communities' access to natural resources.

Francesca Falco
Senior Lawyer

  • Francesca is an environmental lawyer and consultant with expertise on EU and Italian environmental and energy law.

Naila Bhatri
Operations & Finance Director

  • Naila Bhatri manages projects, is in charge of financial management, and coordinates with our global partners. She has a background in forensic science and molecular biology, and applies her scientific methods training to run operations and finance at Conservation Litigation. 

Lynne Hempton
Communications, Translator & Copywriter

  • Lynne is an Italian and French translator and copywriter, specialising in the translation of sustainability and environmental reporting. She is Communications Director of Conservation-Litigation.org.

Ana Maria Carvajal
Legal Intern

  • Ana Maria Carvajal Londoño is a dedicated environmental law professional passionate about biodiversity and sustainability. She holds an LL.M. in Environmental Law with Distinction from Queen Mary University of London, where she focused on modules such as Environmental Law, Climate Change Law, and International Law of the Sea. Ana Maria's global perspective and analytical skills enable her to address complex environmental issues and propose innovative solutions. Her commitment to environmental matters is evident in her work as a Junior Lawyer at a local law firm in Colombia, where she provided legal support to mining and construction companies, emphasizing mining and environmental law and addressing risks in the supply chain.

Our Network

We work through and with our network around the world to develop support and bring precedent-setting liability cases.

Indonesian Center for Environmental Law

Difa Shafira
Head of Forestry and Land Governance Division

  • Difa Shafira holds a Bachelor of Laws degree from the Faculty of Law, University of Indonesia, specializing in Environmental Law and Natural Resource Management. In addition to being an ICEL Researcher, Difa also serves on the Regional Board of WALHI Jakarta. At ICEL, Difa is responsible for advocating community capacity building in the field of environmental law, environmental law monitoring and enforcement, and advocacy related to environmental democracy.

Prilia Kartika Apsari
Researcher

  • Prilia Kartika Apsari obtained her Bachelor's degree from the Faculty of Law, University of Indonesia with a specialization in State Administration Law, specializing in Environmental Law. Prilia was once an awardee of the Kennedy-Lugar Youth Exchange & Study (KL-YES) scholarship program and is still actively volunteering at Bina Antarbudaya Foundation.
    While at ICEL, Prilia has been responsible for advocating for strengthening the capacity of institutions and law enforcement systems, as well as strengthening laws related to biodiversity and environmental and natural resource governance. At ICEL, Prilia pioneered in building enabling instruments for the fulfillment of women's rights in sustainable development. Prilia is also involved in strengthening organizational governance, especially in preparing for organizational independence.

Last Great Ape Organization

Ofir Drori
Founder & Director of LAGA

  • Ofir is the founder and director of LAGA. Over the last eight years he has lived in 26 African countries as an adventurer, journalist, photographer, educator, and environmental activist.

Aime Frisco
Head of Legal Department at LAGA

  • Head of the Legal Department at the Last Great Ape Organization.

Wildlife Trust of India

Jose Louies
Director and Chief of Wildlife Crime Control

  • Jose is a wildlife conservationist with more than fifteen years of experience. He is specialized in wildlife crime prevention, capacity building of enforcement officials, and project management. He has experience in conservation technology development and deployment, and is an expert on snakes and snakebite mitigation across India.

Debobroto Sircar
Head of Wild Aid Division

  • Debobroto joined WTI in the year 2009. He was involved in carrying out conservation projects in the state of Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh, before moving to headquarters in 2011. Currently leading the Wild Aid Division of WTI, he coordinates with regional wildlife conservation organizations from all over India in providing key assistance to address wildlife emergencies.

Sudheer KS

  • Mr. Lovish Sharma is an Advocate at the High Court of Delhi. He has a demonstrated history of working on diverse matters pertaining to Criminal, Constitutional & Environmental Laws. Apart from a Bachelors Degree in Law from University of Delhi, he also holds a Post-Graduate Diploma in International Environmental Law from Indian academy of international law and diplomacy.

    Mr. Sharma is a member of the IUCN’s World Commission on Environmental Law. He is also empanelled as a Law Enforcement Trainer with the Wildlife Crime Control Bureau, Govt. Of India, National Academy of Customs and Wildlife Trust of India. More than 2000 officials of various Law Enforcement agencies such as State Police, Judicial officers, State Forest Departments, Customs, Para Military Forces etc have undergone legal trainings under his mentorship.

    He represented India at the UNODC South Asia Regional Consultation on Addressing Wildlife Crime held at New Delhi in December 2022.

    He was also engaged as a Resource Person for Legal Workshops on Delhi Preservation of Trees Act, 1994 organised by the Mahatma Gandhi Institute for Combating Climate Change, Govt. Of Delhi.

Lovish Sharma
Lawyer at the Delhi High Court.

  • Bio coming soon

Associazione per la Biodiversità
e la sua Conservazione

Andrea Cattabriga
Association President

  • Bio coming soon

Environmental Law Institute

Carol Jones
Visiting Scholar

  • Carol Adaire Jones joined ELI as Visiting Scholar in September 2014, following a 30-year career as an environmental economist in both government and academia. She is co-leading ELI’s project on Tropical Environmental Liability – her focus is on the valuation of damage claims.

    Across her career, two major areas of emphasis have been valuing natural resource damages for federal and state environmental litigation, and conducting research to inform the design of environmental and resource conservation policy.

    Jones received her Ph.D. in Economics from Harvard University, her M.Sc. from the London School of Economics, and her B.A. from the University of Pennsylvania. She has published extensively on various topics, including climate change mitigation in the agriculture/forestry sector, food, resource recovery and the environment; environmental trading, valuation of natural resources and ecosystem services, and design of regulatory policies and enforcement.

Jay Pendergrass
Senior Advisor on Research & Policy

  • Jay is an environmental and natural resources lawyer with broad experience in government, private practice, academic, and non-profit sectors. He has authored several articles, book chapters, and reports on climate change, energy, long-term stewardship of contaminated sites, nanotechnology, federalism, state environmental programs, hazardous substance cleanup programs, community management of natural resources, coal mining reclamation, National Environmental Policy Act litigation, international environmental law, and other topics.

Liberia Chimp Rescue and Protection

Jim Desmond
Co-Founder & Director

  • Dr. Jimmy Desmond DVM, MS is a wildlife veterinarian specializing in emerging infectious diseases. He is a consultant with several international NGO’s including EcoHealth Alliance, Smithsonian Institution, Jane Goodall Institute, and the Pan African Sanctuary Alliance (PASA). As a consultant, Jimmy has worked in many countries around the world conducting field based infectious disease research. In addition, he and his wife Jenny have consulted with several members of PASA including, Ngamba Island Sanctuary in Uganda, Colobus Conservation in Kenya, Centre de Rehabilitation des Primates de Lwiro and Gorilla Rehabilitation and Conservation Education Center both in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

    ​Jimmy spent two years as Consulting Veterinarian and Deputy to the Director for The Humane Society of the United States in Liberia. He is Founder of both Liberia Chimpanzee Rescue and Protection in West Africa and Partners in Animal Welfare and Protection in the U.S.

Jenny Desmond
Co-Founder & Director

  • Jenny is an animal welfare and conservation consultant. She provides guidance and support in a variety of capacities to international private and not-for-profit organizations.

    Current clients include the Jane Goodall Institute, Pan African Sanctuary Alliance, Smithsonian Institute, EcoHealth Alliance and several global wildlife rescue and rehabilitation centres. She also holds the position of International Program Director for the Harmony Fund, based in the USA. Jenny has played leadership roles in multiple funding, marketing and project management programs; created several strategic business development plans; established and improved numerous animal care protocols; and managed the rehabilitation of a diverse number of wildlife species, for a multitude of animal protection and conservation organizations throughout the world, with an emphasis on great apes.

Our Broader Network

  • Taufiq Purna Nugraha
    Primary Investigator of the Laboratory of Wildlife Management and Reproduction, Indonesian Institute of Sciences, who has particular interests in wildlife enforcement and orangutan conservation.

  • Ucha Dzimistarishvili
    Managing Partner of Caissa Law, Georgia and Assistant Professor at New Vision University, who helped with drafting Georgia’s new environmental liability legislation.

  • Rebecca Nichols
    Lecturer in Psychology at Nanyang Technological University, with experience studying jurors’ attitudes and decision-making.

  • Anna Mance
    Assistant Professor of Law at SMU Dedman School of Law, with particular experience in climate litigation.

  • Grahat Nagara
    Lecturer at Jentera Law School, and expert in administrative and environmental law.

  • Rony Saputra
    Director of Law for Auriga Nusantara, where he actively campaigns for a clean environment for the people of Indonesia.

  • Amir Sokolowski
    Global Director of Climate Change at CDP, experienced in environmental and human rights law.

  • Sakshi Aravind
    Lecturer in Law at Newcastle Law School, focused on indigenous communities and environmental litigation.

  • Susan Cheyne
    Director of Borneo Nature Foundation & Vice-Chair of the IUCN Primate Specialist Group Section on Small Apes.

  • Alexander Lees
    Senior Lecturer at Manchester Metropolitan University with a focus on ornithology and forest ecology.

  • Stuart Sharp
    Lecturer at Lancaster University with a focus on animal ecology and ornithology.

  • Edward L. Webb
    Professor of Global Forests and Land Use at the Helsinki Institute of Sustainability Science, University of Helsinki.

  • Colin Sytsma
    Documentary filmmaker at Wood Grain Media, with a passion for great ape conservation.

  • Jaclyn Schwanke
    Illustrator and animator, including of “Pongo the Stolen Orangutan: How Law Can Heal” and the artwork on this website.

  • Belinda Sahadati Amri
    Project Officer at Kemitraan (Partnership for Governance Reform), with a particular interest in human rights and the environment.

  • Kathleen Wootton
    Housing and human rights lawyer and researcher based in Canada, with a passion for Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Due Diligence.

  • Umi Latifah
    Forestry researcher based in Indonesia.

  • Ana Maria Carvajal Londoño Junior Environmental Lawyer in Colombia, formerly a legal intern of Conservation-Litigation.