About us

Science • Community • Conservation

Nakupenda Wildlife was built on a simple conviction: lasting conservation only happens when rigorous science and local communities work together.

Across Namibia's wild landscapes, we combine long-term wildlife monitoring, community-based conservation and applied ecological research to help people and wildlife coexist in places where both depend on the same land.

Our work focuses on some of Africa's most iconic and threatened species, including lions, leopards, elephants and black rhinos. But our mission goes beyond individual species. We build the knowledge, partnerships and local capacity needed to protect entire ecosystems for generations to come.

Today, we run one of Namibia's largest long-term wildlife monitoring networks, spanning three distinct ecosystems from mountain savanna to true desert. The data we gather guides conservation decisions at local and national scales, and helps farming communities live alongside the wildlife they share the land with.

Our Impact

wildlife detections

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camera-trap days

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long-term research landscapes

mammal species monitored

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local families directly involved in community-based monitoring and conservation

Partnerships with conservancies, lodges, NGOs, and universities across Namibia and Europe

Our Story

The roots of Nakupenda Wildlife lie in the belief that conservation should be both scientifically rigorous and locally relevant.

The organisation emerged from years of field experience across Africa and Asia, where our founders repeatedly encountered the same challenge: conservation projects often generated valuable scientific information but struggled to create long-term benefits for the communities living alongside wildlife.

In response, we developed a different model.

Rather than separating research from conservation, we integrate them. Every camera trap deployed, every wildlife record collected and every scientific publication produced is designed to feed directly into conservation action and community engagement on the ground.

Since launching our Namibia programme, we have progressively expanded from a single study area into a research network spanning communal conservancies, private protected areas and desert ecosystems. Along the way, we have built partnerships with local communities, conservation organisations and academic institutions who share our commitment to evidence-based conservation.”

Our team

Marta Bormioli Gambardella and Claudio Augugliaro

Founders & Executive Directors

MARTA BORMIOLI GAMBARDELLA

Founder

Although trained as a lawyer, Marta Bormioli Gambardella had always dreamed of working with and for wildlife. She left her legal career to devote herself to African sustainable tourism, relocating to South Africa in 2013 and then to Namibia in 2018. In Namibia, she founded Nakupenda Wildlife together with co-founder Claudio Augugliaro, who leads the organisation's scientific work. As President of Nakupenda Wildlife, Marta is responsible for maintaining relationships with the institutions and organisations that support the organisation's research and conservation work. She also leads fundraising for its research and conservation activities.

CLAUDIO AUGUGLIARO

Executive Director

Dr. Claudio Augugliaro founded Wildlife Initiative in 2020 and leads the scientific and strategic direction of all Nakupenda Wildlife programs. Holding a PhD in Life Sciences from the University of Lausanne, Claudio has spent more than 15 years developing and leading wildlife research and conservation programs across Africa and Asia. His work focuses on large carnivore ecology, camera-trap monitoring, human–wildlife coexistence, and quantitative conservation science. From snow leopards in Mongolia to desert-adapted lions in Namibia, his research aims to bridge the gap between ecological knowledge and practical conservation solutions. Claudio continues to spend a significant part of each year in the field, working directly alongside research teams, students, and local communities in the landscapes where Nakupenda Wildlife operates.

MARTA BORMIOLI GAMBARDELLA

Founder

CLAUDIO AUGUGLIARO

Executive Director

Community Conservation Officer

VANESSA DESMORY TANJA DOESES

Community Conservation Officer

Vanessa is a young Namibian from the ≠Khoadi-//Hôas Conservancy, where she coordinates our conservation project on the ground. Rooted in the local community, she acts as a bridge between researchers, conservancy staff and livestock farmers. Through her daily presence in the field, she helps gather local ecological knowledge, coordinate community participation and ensure that conservation actions reflect the needs and perspectives of the people living alongside wildlife. Her work is central to our human-lion conflict mitigation programme and to building long-term coexistence between people and wildlife.

VANESSA DESMORY TANJA DOESES

Community Conservation Officer

Our International Team

Nakupenda Wildlife is supported by a dedicated network of researchers, students, coordinators, and conservation practitioners working across Namibia, Europe, and beyond.

Key members include:

RUBEN PORTAS

Namib Desert Programme Lead

Ruben leads Nakupenda Wildlife's work in the Namib Desert. He is a scientist at the Leibniz Institute for Zoo and Wildlife Research (IZW) in Berlin, based in Namibia. As part of the GAIA Initiative team, he studies the ecology and adaptations of lappet-faced vultures in the Namib and helps develop technology to detect environmental change early. Together with the Ministry of Environment, Forestry and Tourism (MEFT), he also leads a long-term cheetah survey estimating cheetah density and distribution across Namibia.

MAILA CICERO

Executive Director, Wildlife Initiative Italia

Maila is Executive Director of Wildlife Initiative Italia, the Italian branch of the international NGO Wildlife Initiative, which supports Nakupenda Wildlife's work in Namibia. She together with Veronica Ramello, coordinates the joint Wildlife Initiative and Nakupenda Wildlife programme in Namibia.

VERONICA RAMELLO

Research Coordinator & Phd Candidate

Veronica is a PhD candidate at Claude Bernard University Lyon 1 (France), where she studies the status and ecology of leopards (Panthera pardus) in Namibia. She oversees wildlife monitoring, data collection and student training across several of our projects in Namibia, helping turn field data into evidence that supports coexistence between people and wildlife.

GAIA PARADISO

Student Programme Coordinator

Gaia holds a Master's degree in Ecology and Ethology for Conservation of Nature from [university]. She coordinates our Student Programme, supporting visiting students throughout their field placements and research activities, from practical logistics and fieldwork guidance to day-to-day life at our research hubs.

ALBERTO TARRONI

Project Manager, Human-Lion Coexistence Project

Alberto leads our human-lion coexistence project in the ≠Khoadi-//Hôas Conservancy, overseeing wildlife monitoring, ecological research and the development of strategies to reduce human-wildlife conflict. He is a conservation biologist and AI researcher at the Swiss Federal Institute for Forest, Snow and Landscape Research (WSL), combining field ecology with artificial intelligence [e.g. to analyse camera-trap data] to make conservation more evidence-based.

Every year, graduate students, interns and researchers from partner universities contribute directly to our fieldwork and data analysis, and to the reports, theses and scientific publications that result.

Our Local Partners and Communities

Conservation cannot succeed without the people who live alongside wildlife every day.

Many of the landscapes where we work are communal conservancies, managed by communities whose knowledge of wildlife, water, seasonal movements and environmental change has been built over generations.

We work within existing conservancy structures and alongside community leaders, livestock farmers, environmental shepherds, local conservation officers and participating families. They report the problems they face with wildlife, so that together we can decide which measures will best support peaceful coexistence.

They also help make long-term monitoring possible.

Our Partners

Our work is built on long-term partnerships with organisations that share a commitment to science-based conservation and community engagement.

These include:

"Where responsible tourism meets conservation."

Journeys NamibiaTOURISM MANAGEMENT COMPANY

“Where communities and wildlife thrive together.״

≠Khoadi-//Hôas ConservancyCommunity Conservancy

“Protecting landscapes. Preserving wildlife.”

Canyon Nature TrustConservation Partner

“Restoring landscapes. Reconnecting wildlife.”

Solitaire Land TrustRewilding Partner

“Turning research into conservation action.”

European & Southern African Universities and research institutions

"Conserving biodiversity. Sustaining communities."

Ministry of Environment, Forestry and Tourism (MEFT)Government Partner

“Where tourism supports people and wildlife.”

Grootberg LodgeCommunity-Based Tourism Partner

“Preserving wild landscapes through responsible tourism.”

Fish River LodgeSustainable Tourism Partner

Together, these partnerships provide the expertise, infrastructure, and local knowledge needed to transform field data into meaningful conservation outcomes.

Why Your Support Matters

Conservation is built one field season at a time.

It is a camera trap that continues operating through the rainy season. It is a vehicle reaching a remote monitoring station before the batteries fail. It is a local family choosing to participate in conservation because doing so provides tangible benefits. It is a student gaining the experience needed to become the next generation of conservation scientists.

Every donation helps keep that chain intact.

By supporting Nakupenda Wildlife, you are helping generate the scientific evidence needed to protect wildlife, strengthening community participation in conservation, and ensuring that long-term monitoring continues in some of Namibia's most important wild landscapes.

Whether you join us as an individual donor, a research partner, a foundation, a zoo, or an academic institution, your contribution becomes part of a long-term effort to build a future where people and wildlife continue to share the same land.