Dr. Lilian Pintea is the Vice President of Conservation Science for the Jane Goodall Institute USA, where he leads JGI’s science strategy and Conservation Science team. A champion of community-led approaches to conservation, Dr. Pintea works closely with local communities, village and regional governments, and JGI staff across countries in Africa and globally to leverage innovative technologies to tackle some of our planet’s most difficult challenges.
Lilian’s pathway to JGI began in 2000, when his work as a PhD student in Conservation Biology and MacArthur Interdisciplinary Scholar brought him to Gombe National Park, Tanzania. There, he discovered through satellite imagery that between 1972 and 1999 more than 60 percent of the chimpanzee habitat outside of the protected park had been lost by conversion into farmland and other human land uses. He began working with Dr. Jane Goodall and JGI Tanzania colleagues, who recognized the value of geospatial insights and the importance of supporting community-led conservation and land use planning. Lilian joined the JGI USA team full time in 2004.
Dr. Pintea is the co-author of the book, “Local Voices, Local Choices: The Tacare Approach to Community-Led Conservation,” created in partnership between the Jane Goodall Institute and Esri, and is the author of and contributor to hundreds of scientific publications. He currently is a member of the IUCN SSC Primate Specialist Group Section on Great Apes and sits on the board of Lookfar Conservation.
Lilian lives in the biodiverse Chesapeake Bay area with his wife Anna, and their two children.
