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WWF Experts
Adam Tomasek
Managing Director Borneo & Sumatra, and Heart of Borneo Network Initiative Leader
Education
- MS - Environmental Systems, Humboldt State University
- BS - Geological Sciences, University of Michigan
Areas of Expertise
- Tropical forest ecology
- Agroforestry
- Protected areas design and management
- Community-based conservation strategies
"What nature took millions of years to evolve could be gone in a decade if we don't act urgently."
About Adam Tomasek:
Think all the interesting species have already been discovered? Adam - who led WWF's conservation efforts in Indonesia, Papua New Guinea and Madagascar before assuming his double role as Managing Director for the Borneo and Sumatra program, and the Heart of Borneo Network Initiative Leader - would beg to differ. The 70 million acres of Borneo and Sumatra are still yielding fascinating discoveries, including 52 new species in Borneo just last year, bringing the total to over 400 over the last decade. This includes the news about a new species of clouded leopard (Neofelis diardi) found only on the islands of Borneo and Sumatra. "The more research we do in these areas, the more we find," Adam says.
Borneo and Sumatra might seem like exotic locations but for Adam who loved the outdoors as a child and lived without running water and only intermittent electricity as a Peace Corps volunteer in Paraguay before joining WWF. "Being outdoors has always been a natural comfort," he says. One of Adam's greatest accomplishments at WWF has been the Heart of Borneo Initiative, an effort to protect a pristine area of rainforests the size of Kansas. Here, Adam says, you will find the last viable populations of orangutans, the rafflesia, the world's largest flower ... and the world's smallest elephant.
