John Howes was born in Wales, UK, and first came to Asia in 1984, as part of a University of East Anglia (UEA) scientific expedition to survey and study Milky Stork populations in west Java, Indonesia. Immediately following the expedition he helped to establish the fledgling INTERWADER programme based in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia – and since then has been living more or less full time in Malaysia, and since 2009 in Port Dickson, Negeri Sembilan.
By the late 1980s INTERWADER had grown from a migratory shorebird conservation project into the fully-fledged Asian Wetland Bureau, and by 1995 had become Wetlands International-Asia Pacific. Having obtained a First Class Honours in Ecology at UEA John established himself with the organisation, first as a Scientific Officer and Regional Training Co-ordinator, and later as a Senior Technical Officer. During that time he developed, implemented and managed more than 50 projects in 10 countries throughout the region. In between stints with AWB and Wetlands International, John also worked as the CITES Review Co-ordinator for the Species Survival Commission (SSC) of IUCN-The World Conservation Union, and as a Senior Ecologist with ECON Ecological Consultants at the University of East Anglia.
After 15 years of working in the conservation NGO and private consultancy sectors, in 1998 John became a freelance Environmental Consultant. Since that time he has retained a position as an Associate Expert with Wetlands International, as well as undertaking independent contracts for a range of Government, NGO and multilateral clients. He is also a member of the Board of Advisors of Wild Asia – an environmental / social enterprise working towards environmental sustainability in the tourism, plantation and forestry sectors throughout SE Asia.
In early 2004, he established an ecological and environmental consulting company in Malaysia (Luscinia Consulting Sdn. Bhd.) and is the director of the company. Contracts have focussed on project development, design and implementation in a diverse range of countries, including: Cambodia, China, DPR Korea, Ethiopia, Ghana, Iran, Kazakhstan, Kenya, Kyrgyz Republic, the Lower Mekong, Malaysia, Mongolia, Mozambique, Myanmar, Republic of Korea, Russian Federation, South Africa, Swaziland, Thailand, Uganda Uzbekistan, Zimbabwe and Zambia. During implementation and development of these projects he has developed a wide range of skills, including:
Environmental Conservation and Natural Resource Management:
- Protected Area Systems management and management planning
- Conservation management and habitat restoration
- Community participation in biodiversity conservation and development of alternative livelihood options with local communities
- Wetland and terrestrial ecology, research and assessment
- Water resources and watershed management
- Integrated Coastal Zone Management (ICZM)
- Mangrove conservation and management planning
- Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA)
- Biodiversity surveys, assessment and research
Project formulation, management and design:
- GEF project development, including Incremental Cost Analysis
- Project design and management
- Technical proposal development
- Training and training needs analysis
- Technical editing/writing
As a conservationist and ecologist John is interested in most things to do with people and the natural World. Whilst his particular passion is birding, at times he finds himself also drawn to tropical forests, dragonflies, mountains, central Asia, mangrove and peat swamp forests. He is married to a Malaysian (Ting) and has a ten year old son (Bryn Chen Ann), and a 3 year old daughter (Lisa Chen Yu).
Contact details
Luscinia Consulting Sdn. Bhd.
Lot 1700 Jalan Toh Kee Kah
Port Dickson
71000 Negeri Sembilan
MALAYSIA
Mobile: ++016 3017082
Email: [email protected]