Staff, Students & Associates

Conservation Biology Masters Students (2011/12)

Darlington Tuagben

Email: darlington.tuagben@uct.ac.za

Born and raised in Liberia, Darlington graduated from the Ganta United Methodist High School in Ganta, Liberia. He always aspired to become a conservationist and work for Liberia’s Forestry Development Authority (FDA). This dream was realized in May 2009 when, after graduating with a BSc Hons in Natural Resources Management from the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology in Kumasi, Ghana, he was employed by the FDA as Chief Park Warden of a proposed protected area, Lake Piso Multiple Sustainable Use Reserve. He is the 1000th Fellow of Earthwatch Institute and also a Fellow of the Tropical Biology Association (TBA) which is sponsoring his position on the CB course in 2011. He has participated in several field courses and seminars including a TBA course in Tanzania, an Earthwatch field course in Ghana, and the 8th International Mobile Seminar on Protected Areas Management in Guatemala and Belize. With the recent discovery of oil in Liberia, Darlington is interested in mitigating the impacts future oil operations will have on both marine biodiversity and the socio-economic environment of people within affected areas. This desire led him to choose, among several courses and universities, the conservation biology program at UCT to expand his knowledge both theoretically and practically after which he will return home to contribute to biodiversity conservation in his country and the world at large.

Mini-thesis

The vulnerability of the coast of Liberia to marine oil spills: Implications for biodiversity and renewable natural resource utilization (Supervisors: A/Prof. Peter Ryan, Dr Jane Turpie and Dr Patrick Morant).