Affiliation/Organization:

Director of the Centre of Excellence in Biodiversity and Natural Resource Management, University of Rwanda

Education:

• BSc. Wildlife Ecology Colorado State University, USA
• MSc. Zoology University of Wisconsin-Madison
• PhD Zoology University of Wisconsin-Madison

Short Biography:

Beth is a Professor of Conservation Science in Biology Dept, College of Science & Technology, University of Rwanda. She is also Director of the Center of Excellence in Biodiversity & Natural Resource Management at UR, a knowledge management research institute aimed at contributing science to policy in support of SDGs. Her major achievements in the Center include raising funds to develop a freshwater biodiversity information system for Rwanda, upgrading and digitizing the National Herbarium of Rwanda, creating the guidelines for access and benefit sharing of traditional knowledge associated with plant genetic resources in Rwanda, and providing research capacity training for postgraduate students. She is also a Research Professor in the School for the Environment and Senior Fellow at the Center of Global Governance and Sustainability, both at University of Massachusetts-Boston. Beth was in the Environmental Studies Dept at Antioch University New England, USA for 20 years (1998-2018) where she served as PhD program director, developed curriculum, and founded and directed the Center for Tropical Ecology & Conservation. From 2006 to 2015, Professor Kaplin raised over 1 million USD from the MacArthur Foundation to develop BSc and MSc programs in biodiversity conservation at National University of Rwanda, and to create the Regional Network for Conservation Educators in the Albertine Rift to support and empower conservation scientists in Rwanda, Burundi, DRC, Tanzania, and Uganda. Her current projects include buffer zones and biodiversity indicators, primate ecology and conservation, and developing a biodiversity information system for effective policy-making and climate change adaptation. She has focused her career on building capacity for biodiversity conservation, research and natural resource management in Africa.

Contact:

Phone: +250 788664551
Email: b.kaplin@ur.ac.rw
ResearchGate: https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Beth_Kaplin
Linkedln: https://www.linkedin.com/in/beth-kaplin-b7a01010/
Personal research website: https://bethkaplin.org/about-dr-kaplin-2/

Research Interests:

Tropical forest ecology, seed dispersal ecology, primate ecology and conservation, human-wildlife interactions, protected areas management and conservation approaches, climate resilience, traditional knowledge and biodiversity conservation.

Last Modified: Tue, 07 Nov 2023 09:07:07 SAST