Madhu Rao

Strategic Advisor

Madhu_round

Madhu is a conservation scientist with over 25 years of experience with designing and supporting the implementation of conservation field programmes across Asia. She has a Master’s and PhD degrees from Duke University conducting her field research in Indonesia and Venezuela respectively. She is currently an Adjunct Professor in the Department of Biological Sciences at the National University of Singapore (NUS).

She has engaged in policy relevant research on topics ranging from protected area policy and threatened species conservation to human wildlife conflict, conservation prioritization and governance.

Her core strength at the science-policy interface is complemented by practical, field implementation experience in Bangladesh, China, India, Mongolia, and across the ASEAN region with protected area creation and management, working on approaches to address human-wildlife conflict and wildlife trafficking. She has engaged in capacity development for protected area management with Southeast Asian Government agencies and institutions and recently co-led the development of a programme to build conservation leadership in the ASEAN region.

She has been involved with ASAP since 2014 supporting its early conceptualization and development and is currently Strategic Advisor to the partnership. She is a candidate for the position of Chair, IUCN World Commission on Protected Areas.