About us
Neotropical Primate Conservation (NPC) was founded by Sam and Noga Shanee and Lizzie Cooke in 2007. It is a non-profit organization, currently awaiting charity status and was set up in order to promote the conservation of neotropical forest habitat and all wildlife through various means. These include: land protection; research; improvement of degraded habitat for wildlife; creation of public awareness; environmental education; and facilitation of the commercialisation of sustainable, ecological products on behalf of local people.
Sam and Noga have considerable experience in primate conservation and have worked in several animal rescue centres in South America as well as reintroduction projects in Asia and the Middle East. It was whilst volunteering at Inti Warra Yassi in Bolivia that they met for the first time. They continued their work in animal rescue at several projects including Amazoonico in Ecuador. In 2004 they got married whilst working at the Gibbon Rehabilitation Project in Phuket, Thailand. Their wedding was the first ever gibbon style wedding, complete with the bride swinging down from the trees. Sam and Noga both recently graduated from Oxford Brookes University with MSc´s in Primate Conservation and have since been back to South America to carry out further research. It was whilst at Oxford Brookes they had the idea to set up NPC.
Lizzie is based in London at present. It was after taking part in an Earthwatch Project researching toque macque monkeys in Sri Lanka she decided to escape from the corporate world by returning to university to gain a MA in Environment, Development and Policy and work as a volunteer at the Gibbon Rehabilitation Project in Thailand, where she met Sam and Noga. Lizzie has also worked for The Gaia Foundation, Tropical Forest Trust and as a volunteer for the Isle of Wight Bat Hospital, Wight Red Squirrel Project and Wight Nature Fund.
Brooke Aldrich joined the team in late 2007. She originally trained as an artist, but while volunteering at a primate sanctuary in 1999 decided that primate welfare and conservation was the right path for her to follow. Since then she has worked or volunteered at numerous rescue centres on three continents and been an active campaigner for primate welfare. She met Sam and Noga Shanee at Oxford Brookes University while studying for her MSc in primate conservation. In 2006 Brooke conducted a study of the Andean titi monkey (Callicebus oenanthe) at the Tarangue reserve in northern Peru owned and protected by the Peruvian/French conservation organisation IKAMA Peru.
Vicki Hughes and Fionn Magnusson also joined the team in 2007 and are both based in London. They are Zoologists who graduated from Liverpool John Moores University and Manchester University respectively in 2005 with BSc honours. They met in Devon in 2003 during a gap year while carrying out research into the behaviour of captive primates. Vicki and Fionn continued with their studies and in 2006 both graduated from Oxford Brookes University with an MSc in Primate Conservation along with Sam, Noga and Brooke. Their MSc dissertations are also available online. At present Fionn is training to become a secondary school biology teacher while Vicki is working for the RSPCA as a hospital assistant.
