The Human Ecology Foundation
Est. 1986
Who Are the Human Ecology Foundation?
The Human Ecology Foundation (HEF), a subsidiary charity of CHEC, was founded in 1986, through the initiative and support of Professor Donald R. Denham and Lord Home of the Hirsel to raise and safeguard a Trust Fund to support education and activities in human ecology.
Since 2011, the HEF has been named The Zena Daysh and Donald Denman Human Ecology Foundation after the late Zena Daysh, founder of the Commonwealth Human Ecology Council (CHEC) and the late Donald Denman, the HEF Founder.
What is Human Ecology?
The HEF originally received donations from leading British and international companies and charities in order to establish an investment fund to generate income. The fund now manages the legacy of Zena Daysh with a remit specifically devoted to supporting projects and activities that improve the livelihoods of underprivileged communities in the Global South.
Currently the HEF funds small projects costing less than £5,001. Projects are approved by the Trustees of the HEF and by the Governing Board of CHEC.
Human Ecology is the focus of HEF’s work, but what is it? Human ecology takes a far-sighted, but realistic, view of the future of human society by recognising that for social stability and human well-being people have to find ways of living in harmony with each other and with the natural resources of the Earth. It investigates the complex set of causal relationships between human beings, their cultural and social practices, and the ecosystems in which these are embedded.
Human ecology embraces both the ideas underlying the notion of sustainable development and the concepts of social responsibility and social equity. Human ecology sees individual responsibility and awareness, along with community cohesion, as the cornerstones to achieving equitable and balanced use of resources and thus secure, strong societies.
What does the Foundation do?
The Foundation supports CHEC’s work in promoting human ecology, sustainable development and action on the climate and biodiversity emergencies throughout the Commonwealth and wider world. In doing so, the Foundation has helped to fund a number of projects including school buildings in Kenya and Sierra Leone, solar power for schools in Nigeria, assistance to tribal communities in Wayanad, Kerala, India, and innovative World Mangrove Day activities in Fiji, the Gambia, India, Malaysia, the Maldives, and Samoa.
The HEF is governed by a Board of Trustees:
Trustees as of September 2024
| Name | Bio and Experience | Contact |
|---|---|---|
| Sridhar Athreya HEF Chair |
Risk Management specialist with 20+ years in finance, risk and regulatory transformation initiatives in financial services sector. Proven and repeated success driving cross-business mandates at HSBC, Barclays, LBG and UBS to strengthen processes, systems and controls, improve conduct and culture, and improve compliance efficiencies. Strong knowledge of financial crime, capital adequacy, tax compliance, operational risk and client money rules and recent regulatory changes around SMCR, 5AMLD and Operational Efficiency. Demonstrable consulting practice development experience gained from leading global risk and regulatory practices at Accenture, KPMG and SunGard. Board-level experience in corporate and non-corporate environments. | sridhar.athreya@gmail.com |
| Donnell Davis | Donnell is the Director of Soroptimist International South-East Asia Pacific; Past President and Divisional Director at UNAAA; former member Governing Board, Commonwealth Human Ecology Council; Board member and former Hon Secretary) and Australian rep on the Asia Pacific-Eastern Regional Organisation for Planning and Human Settlements EAROPH), to become a Trustee of the Human Ecology Foundation. Donnell has a Ph.D. on Urban climate governance, ethics, design and accelerated interdisciplinary innovation (University of Southern Queensland); and a master’s degree on environmental management and planning (University of Queensland). In 2002 she established the Envirobusiness Foundation - Sisters4Sustainability for advancing women's education in sustainability. She is an experienced speaker and advocate for women’s roles and human rights in sustainability and climate change adaptation and mitigation. She has wide connections in the Asia Pacific region and has collaborated in several CHEC meetings, including a session by Pacific women at the Society for Human Ecology (SHE) meeting in Canberra in 2014. | donnell.davis@unaa.org.au |
| Ian Douglas HEF Secretary |
Emeritus Professor of Geography, University of Manchester, UK; Past Chairman of the Commonwealth Human Ecology Board of Governors, the UK Man and Biosphere Urban Forum; the Institute of Australian Geographers, the British Geomorphological Research Group (now British Society for Geomorphology) and the Society for Human Ecology; former Council Member Royal Geographical Society and Institute of British Geographers; Professor of Geography, University of New England, Australia, 1971-78; Visiting Lecturer University of Malaya 1966 and 1969-70; sometime consultant to the Mekong River Commission and to UNESCO Man and Biosphere Urban Programme. Author of several books including Humid Landforms (1977) the Urban Environment (1983) and Cities an environmental History (2013). and Water and the Rainforest in Malaysian Borneo (2022). | iandouglas66@yahoo.com |
| Margaret Evans, CBE | Margaret’s first career was as an investigative journalist in newspapers, radio, and television, until her election into local government in New Zealand. During public infrastructure reforms in the 1980s, she was elected to the local electricity board and Auckland Harbour Board, and then the Waikato Regional Council. In 1989 she was elected as Mayor of Hamilton (the first woman to hold the office) and retired in 1998 after three terms. Within NZ she represented the main cities on Local Government New Zealand’s national executive council and was elected to represent the Asia Pacific region on the global executive of Local Governments for Sustainability (1995-2001). Margaret was recognised widely as a strong advocate for ‘thinking globally and acting locally’ and a pioneer for ‘sustainability’ – in her terms integrating resource management and environmental issues alongside social/cultural concerns and economic development. She completed her MSocSc in 2003 with a thesis on local leadership. She was awarded the CBE when Hamilton’s mayor for her community advocacy and activism, and today continues her grassroots involvement in civil society initiatives and public policy scrutiny. She confesses to being a serial traveller - probably the result of her eyes-opening AFS high school scholarship year in the US and time in Africa as a freelance reporter. | margaret.evans.nz@gmail.com |
| Richard Evans |
Richard Evans’ career began in the charity sector after university, working for Voluntary Service Overseas in Southern Thailand. On his return he started in education, teaching politics and history in schools and colleges. During this time he was a parliamentary candidate in two General Elections. After a number of years in senior management in education, Richard moved into the charity sector, working as Development Director for the international HIV/AIDS charity ACET International. He subsequently worked in executive search, spending over a decade as Chief Executive of a leading City business specialising in the not-for-profit sector. He now is Director of Marylebone Executive Search running a practice which focuses on the charity and not for profit business sectors. Richard has extensive company board experience as a Director and Chairman. He is also a trustee serving on the boards of the Campaign for Learning, and the Milestone Foundation the Council for Education in the Commonwealth. He is a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Marketing, a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts and a member of the English-Speaking Union and the Institute of Directors. He is a Freeman of the City of London and of the Worshipful Company of Educators. He has previously been a trustee of the Brook Advisory Service, a governor of several schools, and a churchwarden. | richard.evans@maryleboneexecutivesearch.com |
| Huia Forbes | Huia trained as a solicitor and worked initially for the New Zealand Ministry of Transport, then as a Research Assistant at the University of Southampton before spending 3 years practising in London in Maritime and International Trade litigation. Huia then went back to university first to do an MSc in Geography at UCL and then an ESRC funded PhD at UEA. Titled “A Māori Experience of Resource Management in New Zealand: Politics, Culture and the Legal Framework”, her work was an ethnographic project looking at why a marginalised Māori tribe based in a small coastal community were unable to engage in resource management and development despite statutory requirements in their favour and their own best efforts. | huia.forbes@hotmail.com |
| Molly R. Gaskin |
Molly is an environmental activist, locally and internationally known for her commitment and achievements in the field of natural resource management, public awareness and environmental education. A prolific writer; her environmental works have been published locally, regionally and internationally, and in 1988 her ‘Creed of Nature’ was published and distributed to schools and youth groups throughout Trinidad and Tobago. She has earned the respect and liking of her colleagues and professionals in the public and private sectors. As an artist, she developed photography skills and in 1977, put together the first environmental audio- visual programme, which she personally took to schools and community groups throughout the country, introducing the concept of environmental education to Trinidad and Tobago. She exhibited the first collection of wildlife photographs in Trinidad and Tobago at Art Creators, St. Ann’s in 1982 and 1985, introducing the concept of ‘Nature Photography’ as an ‘Art’, with all proceeds going to The Pointe-a-Pierre Wild Fowl Trust, which she has developed through the years. In 1983 as a member of WIDECAST, (Wider Caribbean Sea Turtle Network), she designed and co-authored Trinidad and Tobago’s first Sea-Turtle Recovery Plan, and conducted regular weekly patrols for research, information and tagging at Matura Beach and produced a comprehensive book on Sea Turtles. | wildfowltrust@gmail.com |
| John Innes | Former Dean of Forestry at the University of British Columbia and current President of the Commonwealth Forestry Association. He is the FRBC Chair of Forest Management at the University of British Columbia. An Honorary Professorial Fellow at the University of Melbourne. John Innes was Dean of the Faculty of Forestry at the University of British Columbia. He teaches in the field of international and sustainable forestry. He is President of the Commonwealth Forestry Association (since 2010), Chair of the Standing Committee on Commonwealth Forestry and Chair of the Asia-Pacific Forestry Education Coordination Mechanism. He is an Honorary Professorial Fellow in the Melbourne School of Land and Environment at the University of Melbourne and Honorary Professor at five different Chinese universities. He began his career at Forest Research, the Forestry Commission UK. Farnham, UK after PH.D. research at Cambridge on debris flows. | john.innes@ubs.ca |
| Asenath Omwega | Retired Programme Management Officer • United Nations Human Settlements Programme (UN-Habitat) • Nairobi, Kenya; In charge of the strategic programme performance monitoring and reporting functions in UN-Habitat. Previously Director of Programmes • Adventist Development and Relief Agency (ADRA) • Kigali, Rwanda; and prior to that International Director for Africa Region and In-Charge for HIV/AIDS Program • ActionAid International • Nairobi, Kenya where she served as the member of the senior management team of the organization representing Africa and HIV/AIDS programme globally within the organization. | asenathko@gmail.com |
| Mark Robinson |
Mark is Chair of the Governing Board of CHEC and CHEC’s Governance Officer. He has extensive knowledge of the workings of the UK and other governments from a career spanning some 30 years. He has twice been a Member of Parliament and served as Minister of Health and Housing in Wales. He served on the House of Commons Foreign Affairs Committee and on the All-Party Group on Disablement and took a close interest in education and health matters. He has been the Assistant Director in the Office of the Commonwealth Secretary-General in London and Second Officer in the Executive Office of the United Nations Secretary-General in New York. Prior to that, he worked as Special Assistant to the Head of the United Nations Emergency Relief Operation in Bangladesh. After leaving politics in 1997 he worked well with all sides of the political spectrum on matters related to charitable organisations such as the Commonwealth Round Table and the Consortium for Education (CCfE) of which he is the UK Chair. Mark is a non-practicing Barrister at Law. | marknfrobinson@gmail.com |
| Emily Robinson | Emily is a Senior Executive with more than 17 years of experience in investment banking and financial services. She is currently the Chief Operating and Financial Officer at Pico Analytics – working on Sustainability Disclosures, Climate Risk impact and ESG Regulations into Asset Management, Pension Fund, and Hedge Fund strategies. Emily is passionate about solving the climate crisis and recently earned an Accredited Master in Renewable Energy from the Renewable Energy Institute at the European Centre of Technology. She has a Certificate in Business Sustainability Management from the University of Cambridge Institute for Sustainability Leadership and a Bachelor’s with Honours in International Relations, German, and European Studies from Canisius University, Buffalo, New York. In 2017, Emily was trained by Nobel Laureate and former U.S. Vice President Al Gore as a Certified Climate Reality Project Leader in order to promote education and understanding about climate change. In 2020, Emily joined as a Trustee to the Board of Bread and Water for Africa UK and the Board of Governors of the Commonwealth Human Ecology Council, she was elected Honorary Secretary of CHEC in November 2021. In 2023 Emily was elected President of the General Board of Assembly of Portuguese Animal Protection Charity Associação Ninovan. |
emily@picoanalytics.co.uk |