Group Sustainability Manager at Wilderness Safaris
Johannesburg, South Africa
Sue Snyman is the Group Sustainability Manager for Wilderness Safaris, overseeing regional community development, culture, biodiversity conservation and environmental management systems for Wilderness Safaris in seven African countries. Sue joined Wilderness Safaris in 2008, bringing with her over a decade of experience in the ecotourism industry in southern Africa, including guiding, community development and liaison, camp management and environmental impact assessments as an independent consultant.
She received her PhD (Resource Economics) from the University of Cape Town (UCT) in 2013. The focus of her PhD research was on the socio-economic impact of high-end ecotourism in remote, rural communities adjacent to protected areas and was based on over 1800 community surveys in six southern African countries. Sue is vice-chair of the IUCN WCPA Tourism and Protected Areas Specialist Group and coordinator of the Communities & Heritage Working Group within this specialist group.
She is also a Board Member for Children in the Wilderness (an environmental education and community engagement programme in six southern African countries) in Botswana and South Africa, and the convener of the SADC Transfrontier Conservation Area (TFCA) Tourism Community of Practice. Through a recent Convention of Biological Diversity (CBD) project, she co-authored Guidelines for tourism partnerships and concessions for protected areas: generating sustainable revenues for conservation and development.