Joh Henschel

Manager

Joh Henschel is an ecologist, with an early background in marine biology, followed by terrestrial ecology, particularly in arid lands. His specific fields of research include biodiversity, community ecology, landscape ecology, and restoration ecology. Joh studied zoology and oceanography up to MSc level at the University in Cape Town, and obtained his PhD degree through the Mammal Research Institute at the University of Pretoria. He spent 35 years in Namibia, employed as post-doc, scientist, the director of an environmental institution and environmental consultant. Joh currently manages or coordinates projects of the SAEON arid lands node and is in the process of developing new ones together with colleagues and institutional partners. With his zoological background, he broadens the pallet of SAEON projects to also include population dynamics and ecological significance of indicator animals, including arthropods and mammalian herbivores. Furthermore, his many years of experience in environmental monitoring and advising environmental procedures by mining and film industries facilitate his current development of related projects across the arid half of South Africa, including planning environmental baselines and monitoring relating to shale gas mining. He has published 128 scientific papers and several hundred popular articles on environmental topics, including three popular books published in Namibia.