Aiita Joshua Apamaku

Uganda

MSc Biodiversity, Conservation, & Management, 2025
Mansfield College, Kofi Annan Scholarship
Funding: Oxford-Weidenfeld and Hoffmann 

Aiita is a Wildlife Biologist and National Geographic Young Explorer from Uganda with keen interests and experiences in protected area policy and governance.  He is a Co-Lead and Protected and Conserved Areas (PCA) Thematic Lead at Terra-NatureWild Conservation, a conservation network focused on illuminating the power of science and stories for Conservation. He holds a Bachelor’s of Science in Wildlife Health and Management from Makerere University, Kampala. Aiita is also the Regional Focal Point for Young Professionals at the IUCN World Commission on Protected Areas (WCPA)  East and Southern Africa. Aiita’s belief in the power of science and stories inspires his work to transform systems for just and rights based approaches to conservation governance and connection with the natural world, influencing his work and growing interest in conservation science-telling. 

At Oxford, Aiita hopes to obtain much deeper insights into the interplay of biocultural relationships between communities and the surrounding Protected Area Ecosystems in Africa, further proposing and guiding adaptive and inclusive conservation models.