Born in Dublin Ireland, Dr Graham McCulloch is an ecologist who has spent the past three decades living in Botswana, working in the country’s tourism, environmental consultancy and conservation sectors. He gained a BSc honours degree in Zoology from the University of Dundee, Scotland in 1994 and spent the following four years working as a professional guide in the safari industry, with Uncharted Africa Safari Company. Thereafter, he embarked on a PhD project aimed at understanding the wetland ecology of the Makgadikgadi salt pans and its avifauna. On completion of his PhD in 2003, he began his career as a freelance ecology consultant. In 2005, he co-founded a community owned nature reserve outside Francistown; Tachila Nature Reserve, which he project managed for the first three years of its existence. This experience gave him a great deal of insight into natural resource development planning, project management, and appropriate local-level governance and management of natural resources. After his departure from the reserves management position in 2009, he established a consultancy company, EcoStars (Pty) Ltd. and has since gained considerable experience conducting EIAs and working on various wildlife management area and wetland management plans throughout Botswana and Zambia. Some examples: lead consultant for the Ecology and Hydrology component of the Makgadikgadi Wetlands Framework Management Plan for the Government of Botswana in 2010, and; in 2011, he was biodiversity expert on a consultancy team that developed ecological thresholds as part of an SEA for the effective management of the Okavango Delta. He is currently based in the Okavango Delta, where he co-founded and co-directs the Ecoexist Trust. Ecoexist aims to support the lives and livelihoods of people living with part of the largest herd of free roaming elephants on the planet, around the Okavango Delta. To reduce human-elephant conflict (HEC) and promote coexistence, a 35-strong team at Ecoexist work on a holistic approach, focusing on addressing the social & ecological drivers of HEC and supporting the needs of both humans & elephants in order to foster coexistence: www.ecoexistproject.org. Five years ago, Graham also co-founded the @OkavangoCraftBrewery, an independent business/company that was established with one ambitious, innovative goal: to create a new market for local farmers who practice elephant aware farming. To incentivize & reward farmers for efforts to coexist with elephants, OCB pays a premium for millet, a dominant staple crop in the Okavango, and turns it into craft beer.