Raja Ampat Expedition: Team Members

Raja Ampat Expedition----31 October - 22 November 2002

Dr. Rod Salm, The Nature Conservancy
Dr. Rod Salm is currently Director, Coastal Marine Conservation , for TNC's Asia Pacific and California Division. Raised in Mozambique, Rod has spent most of his professional life in East Africa and the Western Indian Ocean and Asia, where he has more than 25 years experience in conservation of coastal and marine ecosystems. He has also worked in parts of Latin America and the Caribbean and in polar environments. Rod has published more than 170 articles and 6 books on marine ecology, taxonomy, resource management, conservation, and popular natural history.

Duncan Neville, The Nature Conservancy
Duncan first worked in Indonesia in 1989 with WWF, heading the Arfak Mountains program in Irian Jaya (now Papua). His work during this time focussed on commercial farming of the birdwing butterflies by mountain communities. As head of TNC's Palu Field Office, he has been responsible for completion of a draft twenty-five year management plan for the park, performance of detailed biodiversity surveys, and integration of a collaborative management framework into Park planning, withextensive involvement from local community groups.

Dr. Mark Erdmann, USAID/NRM
A coral reef ecologist from the University of California, Berkeley, Dr. Erdmann has spent the past 10 years in Indonesia conducting research and implementing reef conservation programs. While his PhD research focused on the ecology and systematics of stomatopods (mantis shrimp), Dr. Erdmann's other research interests include human impacts on coral reefs (especially from destructive fishing practices such as blast and cyanide fishing), reef rehabilitation techniques, coelacanth conservation, and genetic connectivity of Indonesian marine protected areas (MPAs). Dr. Erdmann currently works as the MPA advisor for the USAID-funded Natural Resources Management Program, where he leads the Bunaken National Park collaborative management initiative.

Dr. Gerald Allan, Western Australian Museum
Dr. Allen has served as Senior Curator of Fishes at the Western Australian Museum in Perth for 25 years. After gaining his Ph.D. from University of Hawaii in 1971, Gerry's life has been devoted to ichthyology, particularly the study of freshwater fish in New Guinea, and coral-reef fish of the Indo-Pacific. He has an incredible 114 months (9.5 years) of field experience. Besides writing 271 journal papers and 32 books, Gerry has found time to pursue his hobbies of mountain-climbing and bird watching, and is also 8 times state veteran champion at bicycle racing.

Dr. Agus I. Sumule, Univesity of Papua
With a degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Agriculture from the University of Queensland, Australia, Dr. Sumule has extensive experience in social analysis and environmental impact assessment, and has advised both PT Freeport Indonesia and British Petroleum in Papua. As part of a select team, he assisted in drawing up the Bill for Special Autonomy of Papua Province, which came into effect on January 1st , 2001. Dr. Sumule holds a lectureship at the University of Papua, Manokwari, and was raised and educated in Papua.

Dr. Wayne Takeuchi, Harvard University
Dr. Wayne Takeuchi began conducting botanical research on the island of New Guinea in 1988 while attached to the B.P. Bishop Museum in Hawaii. He has worked continuously in Papua New Guinea (PNG) since then, developing a wide knowledge of New Guinea plants. His projects have discovered and described many plants previously unknown to science. Because of the unexplored status of the Raja Ampat islands, many new species are also expected from the present survey. Wayne is currently a Tropical Forest Biologist for the Herbaria and Arnold Arboretum of Harvard University and remains actively involved with local institutions such as the PNG National Forest Service, Parataxonomist Training Center, Village Development Trust, and the University of Technology of PNG.

Emre Turak, AIMS
Emre Turak is an expert coral taxonomist and leading exponent of coral reef surveys and monitoring, based at the Australian Institute for Marine Science. He has done research on hard-corals in 12 countries across the world, most notably around the Red Sea, the Great Barrier Reef, and in eastern Indonesia. He is a skilled underwater cameraman, whose work has been shown on national television. Emre has work ed on a project to reorganize the coral collection at the Museum National d'Histoire Naturel, Paris, and is currently completing a Ph.D. at the Sorbonne.

Joe Yaggi, Jungle Run Productions
Joe Yaggi, the documentary team leader and top-side director of photography, is an award winning documentary filmmaker who specializes in documentary video and television in remote areas. Based in Indonesia, Joe's recent credits include the "Grand Festival Award" for adventure documentary at the Berkeley Video and Film Festival for "A Kayak Adventure in Borneo". Portions of this film are presently airing on National Geographic Channel's Adventure 1 and have aired on ABC News USA. His collaborations and clients include the European Broadcasting Union, CNN, the UNDP, Women's Communication Forum for East Timor and the International Organization for Migration (IOM) just to name a few. Joe is fluent in spoken Bahasa Indonesia.

Pawel Achtel, Jungle Run Productions
Pawel Achtel, the documentary team's underwater director of photography, is an independent producer and filmmaker who is setting new standards for high definition underwater videography. Best known for Aliens of the Sea, a stunning exploration of marine wildlife, Mr. Achtel has taken multiple awards at the New York International Film Festival, the International Wildlife Film Festival in Montana and was recently honored with the Gold Camera Award (1st Prize) at the United States International Film Festival. Discovery Channel, ABC and BBC are among his primary customers for finished programs and unique footage of Australian marine life. Since 1999 Pawel has been filming for his new Blue Chip underwater wildlife programme about Seadragons a unique fish inhabiting Australian temperate waters.

Morgan Gabereau, Jungle Run Productions
Morgan Gabereau, the documentary team's executive producer and co-director, has extensive experience in the international film, television, new media and communications industries including the Cannes, Toronto and Vancouver International Film Festivals, "Hot Docs" Documentary Festival, Banff Television Festival, Asian Television Forum, Natpe and Realscreen. He has worked in international economics, politics and government (OECD), print and electronic news media, feature films, series television, telefilms, documentary, commercial and corporate programming. Projects and clients include: Tropic Digital Imaging, "The Exaptriates" (series pilot) - Co-Producer/Director. "Impressing Sara" - Writer/Director (feature film) Relentless Entertainment, Zoomandgo.com - travel web-site/image bank, Bravo!FACT/AGO - Director/Writer "Body of Art", CPAC, ITN, CBC Radio, CNN, CTV, TVONTARIO, Cinenova, Zodiac Hurricane Technologies. He has a BA in Political Science, Film Theory and Art History (Dipl.).

Djuna Iveriegh, Jungle Run Productions
Thirteen years of professional writing and photography has impressed upon Djuna the power of timely, lively and carefully planned communication. She sees many "media campaigns" as too little, too late and too lackluster. Djuna knows community and conservation issues not only in an academic sense but through direct, hands-on experience. In partnership with local communities and NGOs, she launched Project Bird Watch Indonesia an ecotourism network that employs ex-bird poachers as bird guides and serves as a catalyst for conservation. Her greatest thrill is sharing that passion through words and images that excite and inspire. Her credits range from Interpretive materials to popular writing and include such clients as Carlsbad Caverns National Park, US National Science Foundation, Action Asia, and Earth Magazine just to name a few.

Yulianus Thebu, WWF
Since graduating in Biology from Sam Ratulangi University (Manado) in 1996, Yulianus has had a varied career - he has been a teacher, and participated in community and environmental surveys in Wamena and Sorong. His current position is with WWF Sahul where he has been coordinating community monitoring of leatherback turtles at Jamursba Medi nesting beach. Yulianus comes from Waigeo Island, one of the main islands of the Raja Ampat group, and is a representative of local community organization Ambel Worem Waigeo.

Creusa (Thetha) Hitipeuw, WWF
Tetha is a graduate of the Pattimura University in Ambon, and gained a Masters Degree in Marine Ecology from the Free University of Brussels in 1996. Since 1992 Tetha has been carrying out research into turtle and dugong ecology on the beaches and sea-grass beds of eastern Indonesia. She is now working for WWF Indonesia as Country Coordinator for the Bismarck and Solomon Seas ecoregion action program.

For questions or problems regarding these pages, Contact ReefBase WebMaster.
Although these webpages are developed and hosted by ReefBase,
they are subject to TNC's legal and privacy policies.