He was selected as an Australian Youth Ambassador volunteer in Vietnam, has spent time protecting tree kangaroos in Papua New Guinea, has a PhD in Conservation Planning and Environmental Management and now works for WWF on the Global Tiger Recovery Program across tiger range countries.
Ashley Brooks finished year 12 at Girton Grammar in 1994 and his feet have barely touched the ground since. Ashley, school captain in 1994, attended Girton as a boarder from 1989 – 1994 and went on to complete a Science degree majoring in ecology and environment.
After working with the National Parks and Protected Areas Association in Vietnam as a volunteer, Ashley returned home and obtained post graduate degrees in Vietnamese language, and then in Environment and Development at Melbourne University. The next chapter for Ashley was in a Brisbane based consulting firm where he co-ordinated two multi-million dollar AusAid projects in PNG with stints in Cambodia and Vietnam.
Still not satisfied that he was truly following his passion for conservation, Ashley enrolled in a PhD at the University of Queensland and ended up working with the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) and headed back to Vietnam. Here he was given a national award by the Vietnamese government and his work was recognised by the then Prime Minister of Australia, Kevin Rudd.
Two more stints brought Ashley to where he is now; one with Conservation International working on climate change risks to species and biodiversity in the Pacific and one as a landscape conservation specialist with Woodland Park Zoo (Seattle) for the Tree Kangaroo Conservation Program in PNG.
Now, Ashley is part of an international alliance of governments, scientists and conservationists aiming to double the number of tigers in the wild by 2022.
Working for WWF’s Tigers Alive Initiative his work contributes to the Global Tiger Recovery Program working to bring wild tigers across India, South East Asia, China and Russia back from the brink of extinction to be protected for present and future generations. His main areas of work are protecting tiger habitats and corridors that link national parks and protected areas, and work on managing human tiger conflict as the species recovers.
For more information about the Tigers Alive Initiative, go to: www.panda.org/tigers. For more on the Global Tiger Recovery Program, go to: https://globaltigerinitiative.org/who-we-are/
Ashley Brooks (far left), Class of 1994 with work colleagues 