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Dr Francis Vorhies

AWEI Director

AWEI Director

Bio

A conservation economist, Dr Francis (Frank) Vorhies is the Director and Co-Founder of AWEI and an Extraordinary Professor in the Faculty of AgriSciences at Stellenbosch University. Frank is also  a Visiting Fellow at the Vinson Centre at the University of Buckingham.

His lifelong commitment to sustainable development and conservation in Africa and beyond has seen him take up and develop several innovative initiatives and roles, including founding Eco-Plus in Johannesburg to provide economic policy inputs to conservation; joining the African Wildlife Foundation in Nairobi to build regional capacity in the economics of biodiversity; appointment as the first chief economist at the IUCN HQ in Geneva; CEO of the Earthwatch Institute in Oxford, Academic Director of the African Leadership University's School of Wildlife Conservation in Kigali, and Research Associate at the Wildlife Conservation Research Unit (WILDCRU) at the University of Oxford.

@AWEI

Frank has been the AWEI Director since its inception in 2018; He is an ex-officio member of AWEI's Board and also a member of its Management Committee. In addition, to establishing and developing the Institute, he has a particular interest in the impact of international policy on Africa's wildlife economy, the opportunity for increasing intra-African trade in wildlife products, and the role that sustainability standards can play to facilitate the entry of wildlife products into global value chains.

In 2026, he exploring the potential for launching a postgraduate diploma in wildlife economy and for offering professional short courses on aspects of the wildlife economy.

Selected outputs