Community-first conservation, at every stage

We’re creating a community of passionate conservationists

We are proud of our team and their passion for working hand-in-hand with the community members of Tambakha Chiefdom to support conservation of wildlife and this precious ecosystem. Almost all of our teams members are from the rural area in and around the Outamba Kilimi National Park, led by Kalie Kamara who worked on the team which originally founded Outamba Kilimi National Park in the early 1980s.

Kalie Kamara

Our fearless leader, Mr. Kamara, has been fighting for the preservation of Sierra Leone’s wildlife since he began working with Dr. Geza Teleki founding the Outamba Kilmi National Park in the early 1980’s. Though continuing to pursue conservation working after the Sierra Leonean civil war ended was difficult, he always persisted, and is now the In-Country Director of activities with our ‘sister’ CBO (community based organisation, this accreditation is to ensure all our efforts are community approved and supported) and a Trustee on the Pan Verus Project Board of Directors. He is passionate about ensuring there is community buy-in at every stage of the work.

The Trustees

In addition to Kalie Kamara, we have two UK-based Trustees: Sarah Bell and Richard Edmond. Sarah Bell founded the Pan Verus Project in 2018 as a way to encourage collaborative research in Outamba Kilimi National Park, working with MSc students from the Oxford Brookes University Primate Conservation programme. In addition to this the focus of her PhD research largely took place in and around Outamba, which is how she became connected with Mr. Kalie Kamara and the rest of the team. Sarah now remotely oversee’s the project’s research and overall aims. She is currently completing her PhD studies at Oxford Brookes University and works at the Oxford University Museum of Natural History as a science communicator.

Richard Edmond became involved in the project when he was working at the University of Makeni, in Sierra Leone. He worked in Sierra Leone from 2014 to 2019, first during the Ebola epidemic, helping to set up the country’s first genetics lab at the University of Makeni, then in a leading role on a DFID-funded (Government of the United Kingdom’s Department for International Development) project aimed at updating university curriculums with the input of leaders in the business sectors and government ministries. Richard is now based in London and acts as treasurer for the Project in addition to assisting with attaining project funding.