Francine Madden
Executive Director
Human-Wildlife Conflict Collaboration
Francine Madden brings over fifteen years of inter-disciplinary experience working on human-wildlife conflict and other aspects of community-based wildlife and natural resource conservation. Recognizing the value of integrating inter-disciplinary and multi-sectoral perspectives into conservation, Ms. Madden is pioneering efforts to bring expertise and lessons learned from the conflict resolution field into the work of HWCC, as well as efforts to integrate human rights and public interest law perspectives into the efforts to resolve conservation and wildlife conflicts.
Prior to launching the HWCC in November, 2006, Ms. Madden designed a human-gorilla conflict mitigation project to address human-mountain gorilla conflict in the three African countries (Rwanda, Democratic Republic of Congo and Uganda) in which this species exists. She has counseled governments, such as Bhutan, Brazil and Uganda, on a variety of human-wildlife conflict issues, including: strategies for addressing livestock depredation; development of appropriate national HWC management policy; and the applicability and appropriateness of a variety of tools and techniques to mitigate HWC. Through her work with the African Wildlife Foundation, World Wildlife Fund and the U.S. Department of the Interior, Ms. Madden developed and managed conservation projects and international technical assistance and training programs in Africa, Asia, Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union. She has also conducted research and led efforts to foster greater understanding about and explore the linkages between human cultures and our natural environment.
Ms. Madden developed the first global assessment of compensation schemes used to mitigate human-wildlife conflict in and around protected areas. She has organized and facilitated several international, national and regional workshops on HWC, including the 2004 Bhutan National Tiger Action Plan conference, HWC workshops at the 5th World Parks Congress in Durban, South Africa and the 2004 World Conservation Congress in Bangkok, Thailand, and an African multi-country conflict mitigation and prevention workshop.
Ms. Madden has two master's degrees from the School of Public and Environmental Affairs at Indiana University and is the author of numerous publications and presentations on various aspects of human-wildlife conflict, conservation conflict, and the human element of conservation work.