People like Muhammad Waseem are living example of famous quote that says “We don’t own the planet Earth; we belong to it. And we must share it with our wildlife”. Muhammad Waseem is our Pakistan Educational Leadership Institute (Plymouth State University, Newhampshire, USA), 2008 Program alumnus and has spent around 2 decades in the field of Wildlife Management and Natural Resource Conservation in Pakistan. He is currently associated with WWF-Pakistan as Manager Conservation. Waseem is primarily a researcher and educationist and since 2003, he has been specifically involved in the ecological surveys, conservation education and management planning of wildlife species. He has been awarded with prestigious awards like ‘Unsung Hero’ and ‘Out of Box’ thinking categories by the Wildlife Practice and WWF-International in March 2021.
Waseem is amongst the leading Wildlife Biologists in managing human-wildlife conflict in Pakistan. Radio collaring the first common leopard in Pakistan in 2012 and studying the population dynamics, sub species identification of common leopard in collaboration with the LinkedIn University, New Zealand are prominent feathers in his cap. Currently, Waseem is involved in research and conservation of highly poached endangered small mammal Indian Pangolin from different parts of Pakistan.
Waseem is also member of International Snow leopard Network, Cat Specialist group and Human-Bear Conflict Management Group of Species Survival Commission, IUCN. Since 2009, he has also been leading the implementation of Watershed Management and Environmental Awareness in and around Ayubia National Park and Khanpur Dam of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. Beside this, Waseem is author of more than 25 research articles that have been published in leading research journals and he has also supervised dissertations of more than 40 research students.
Mother earth for sure has got high hopes of its restoration due to people like you Waseem!