Dr William Fowlds

Dr William Fowlds is a wildlife vet based in the Eastern Cape of South Africa with a dedication to clinical support of wildlife management, active conservation and re-wilding projects, landscape planning and restoration as well as awareness, fundraising and strategic implementation of projects to prevent rhino poaching and encourage range expansion.

He co-founded Investec Rhino Lifeline in 2013. He is project coordinator for Wilderness Foundation Africa on the Medivet Saving the Rhino campaign which has enabled him to increase his work in rescue, education & awareness and prevention of poaching at both protection and demand reduction sides of the crisis. He is a trustee of the Chipembere Rhino Foundation and the African Rhino Conservation Collaboration and strives to encourage a multi-faceted approach to the rhino crisis through increased collaboration and cohesion.

He is a founding director of the Conservation Landscapes Institute which promotes the expansion of biosphere reserves, conservation landscapes and ecosystem connectivity corridors as a mechanism to reverse the adverse effects of climate change, the extinction crisis and socio-economic poverty.

Dr Fowlds is a majority shareholder of one mixed and one wildlife veterinary practice in the Eastern Cape and lives on Amakhala Game Reserve which he co-founded with several neighbouring families 23 years ago. His wife is a junior primary school teacher and they have three children.

He spends part of his time facilitating courses which connect veterinary students from around the world with the diversity of African wildlife and their issues. These “Vets go Wild” courses aired around the world as the “Safari Vet School “ and “Work on the Wild Side” series, via ITV, Animal Planet and Channel 4.

In his presentations, Dr Fowlds journeys through his experiences at the cutting edge of the illegal wildlife trade, wildlife habitat restoration and re-wilding and now the search for solutions to the urgent issues of the decade in climate change, loss of biodiversity, disease implications and the poverty gap.

He has built partnerships with a number of initiatives in the USA and UK including Medivet, Texas Christian University, Helping Rhinos, Wildlife Protection Solutions and Global Conservation Force.