Dr Özgün Emre Can

Özgün Emre Can is a conservation biologist at WildCRU, University of Oxford. His current research focuses on the ecology of clouded leopards and leopards in the Himalayas, human-wolf interactions in Central Asian societies, and on fostering transdisciplinary mindsets in conflict management and carnivore conservation.

Emre has been working in human-wildlife conflict since the 1990s, collaborating with major international organizations such as WWF, Birdlife, UNDP. His approach is to design and implement problem-oriented studies to address applied, real-world conservation issues, and to propose science-based solutions to the problems faced by carnivores, including grey wolves, brown bears, striped hyaena and leopards. He has worked with diverse groups - from fellow researchers to remote communities and governmental policy makers - to effect positive change for people and carnivores across countries including Turkey, Greece, US, Romania, Georgia and Nepal.

From 1996-2011, Emre assisted the national wildlife authority in Turkey to establish a countrywide mammal monitoring system, modernize wildlife management and conservation legislation, improve the conservation status of grey wolves, striped hyaena and leopards, initiate national efforts to manage human bear conflict and undertake countrywide habitat restoration efforts for wildlife. Emre has also contributed to cross-boundary nature protection efforts in the Caucasus, worked to strengthen the IUCN network in Central Asia as co-chair of the IUCN Bear Specialist Group South Asia Brown Bear Expert Team and played a key role in the establishment of the IUCN BSG Human-Bear Conflict Expert Team. He has trained students and wildlife managers in techniques for surveying rare species in remote environments and for managing human-wildlife conflicts, and also worked to produce educational materials and TV documentaries.

Emre is a council member of the International Association for Bear Research and Management, a member of the IUCN Wolf, Bear, Canid, Hyaena, Deer Specialist Groups, a member of the IUCN SSC/WCPA Protected Areas and Biodiversity Task Force, and a former board member of the Society for Conservation Biology Europe Section.