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Dr. Mohammad Zahangir Alom
Country Director
Dr. Mohammad Zahangir Alom joined WCS Bangladesh in 2007 and, since January 2024, has served as our Country Director and Terrestrial Program Manager, which focuses on combatting illegal wildlife trade and conducting SMART wildlife enforcement and monitoring patrols. Zahangir completed his Ph.D. on the ecology and human use characteristics of freshwater dolphin habitat in the Sundarbans from Jahangirnagar University, Bangladesh. As a member of the SMART Marine and Training Task Forces, Zahangir has provided SMART patrol trainings for Mekong River guards in Cambodia and park rangers in Sri Lanka. He is also a member of the IUCN SSC Cetacean Specialist Group, the IWC South Asian River Dolphin Task Team and the Zoological Society of Bangladesh, and regularly participates as an invited speaker in regional and international conferences and workshops.
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Mohammad Shajahan ACA
Manager - Finance
Mohammad Shajahan started as a Chief Accountant at WCS Bangladesh in 2019 and was promoted to Finance Manager in 2020. His key responsibilities are maintaining project accounts, supporting audits, donor reporting, and budgeting. Shajahan has a strong background in accounting, auditing, taxation, budgeting, and financial reporting. Before joining WCS, Shajahan worked as Assistant Manager in the US Bangla Group Accounts and Finance Department. Mr. Shajahan is a Chartered Accountant; he completed the chartered accountancy from the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Bangladesh (ICAB). He received his post-graduate degree (MBS in Accounting) from Dhaka College under the National University.
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Nadim Parves
Manager - Educational Outreach Program
Nadim Parves first joined WCS Bangladesh in 2017 as a research assistant, participating in marine wildlife surveys. He then joined our Educational Outreach Program as a Program Officer, where he later worked as the program's Coordinator and Senior Coordinator. In 2022, Nadim was promoted to Manager of the Educational Outreach Program supporting our terrestrial and marine programs in the development, implementation and evaluation of education and training programs, communication strategies and locally appropriate tools for improved protection of threatened wildlife and wild places. Nadim completed his Master of Science degree in Wildlife and Biodiversity Conservation from Jagannath University in Dhaka, Bangladesh. While a student at Jagannath University, Nadim initiated the Bangladesh Chiropteran Diversity Assessment Project, volunteered with the Spoon-billed Sandpiper Conservation Project, and worked as a Research Assistant for WildTeam in USAID's BAGH Activity Project.
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Sukanta Biswas
Manager, Human Resources and NGO Affairs Bureau Liaison
Sukanta Biswas holds a Master of Social Science degree in Sociology from the National University of Bangladesh. He joined WCS in 2018 as NGO Affairs Bureau (NGOAB) Liaisons Officer and was promoted to Manager of Human Resources and NGOAB Liaisons in 2023. Sukanta’s core responsibility is to ensure compliancy with global and regional WCS policies and national government requirements. He liaises with the NGOAB and local administrators across our project sites in Bangladesh, and supports WCS Bangladesh program teams with project logistics, staff recruitment and evaluation, and program administration. Before joining WCS, Sukanta was an Administrative Officer for seven years with the NGO Shushilan.
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Mohammad Tariqul Islam
Senior Advisor, Combating Wildlife Trade- Terrestrial Conservation Program
Mohammad Tariqul Islam is a highly experienced retired government official from the Forest Department who joined WCS Bangladesh as a Senior Advisor in April 2018. In this role, he liaises with the Forest Department, Ministry of Environment, Forests and Climate Change, and law enforcement agencies to support WCS programs on combatting illegal wildlife trade, improving protection for threatened species, and managing protected areas. From 2005 to 2015, Tariqul was Assistant Chief Conservator of Forests and Conservator of Forests in the Chief Conservator of Forests office in Dhaka. Tariqul Islam has a Bachelor degree of Science in Zoology from Rajshahi University and a Masters of Science degree in Forestry from Chattogram University. He completed his Post Graduation Diploma in Forest Science from the University of Melbourne, Australia in 2001. Throughout his career, Tariqul has attended numerous training courses, workshops and meetings in China, Japan, Philippines, Thailand, Cambodia, India, Singapore, France, and Brazil. For ten years, he was also a member of the national team for reactive monitoring missions in the Sundarbans World Heritage Site.
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Dr. Laskar Muqsudur Rahman
Legal Adviser, Combating Wildlife Trade- Terrestrial Conservation Program
Dr. Laskar Muqsudur Rahman has been serving as Legal Adviser for WCS Bangladesh since 2019. His core responsibilities are guiding and coordinating interactions with law enforcement agencies to combat illegal wildlife trade, analyzing gaps in and drafting proposed revisions to national laws, agency mandates, and policies. He also facilitates programs with high-level and field-level government officers and supports interagency communication and capacity building. Dr. Laskar has a Ph.D. degree in Forestry from the University of Chattogram, and Master of Science degrees in Environmental Forestry from the University of Wales, UK, in Forestry from the University of Peshawar, and in Botany from the University of Dhaka. He obtained his LLB degree from the National University of Bangladesh. Before joining WCS, Dr. Laskar held various senior positions during his 30-year tenure with the Bangladesh Forest Department under the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change. Dr. Laskar is a member of the IUCN World Commission on Environmental Law. In addition, he is engaged in various capacities with several international development organizations.
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Dr. Syed Arif Azad
Senior Adviser - Marine Conservation Program
Dr. Syed Arif Azad joined the Department of Fisheries in 1984 and served as its Director General from 2011 to 2018. During his tenure, the longest in the departments history, he was also the Chair of the Network of Aquaculture Centers in Asia-Pacific (NACA) Governing Council (2017/18).
As Senior Advisor to the WCS Bangladesh Marine Conservation Program, Dr. Azad supports our efforts to improve marine fisheries policies and the technical capacity and collaborations required to implement them, especially within the Department of Fisheries and Forest Department. He also assists with the development, management, and reporting of projects and strategies that enable WCS engagement with government and community partners in Bangladesh.
Dr. Azad is a natural resources management specialist with expertise on fisheries management and policies, gender and development, project preparation and management, training and capacity development, and food safety and value chain. He holds a Masters degree in Marine Management from the Dalhousie University in Halifax, Canada, and obtained his PhD on Gender Relations in Aquaculture in Bangladesh. He has extensively published on fisheries management in international peer-reviewed journals and books.
After retiring as Director General of the Department of Fisheries in Bangladesh, Dr. Syed Arif Azad was engaged as Chief Technical Consultant of the Solidaridad Network for Asia, and as consultant by the Palli Karma Sohayok Foundation (PKSF), and by the World Bank Group for assessing abandoned, lost, and discarded fishing gear in the Bay of Bengal. He is currently a member of the Executive Committee of the national Safe Agro Food Efforts (BSAFE) Foundation, and of the Krishibid Institution of Bangladesh (KIB) Central Committee.
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G M Masum Billah
Field Coordinator - Marine Conservation Program
G.M. Masum Billah interned with WCS Bangladesh as a research assistant and interpreter for our Educational Outreach Program while completing his Bachelor of Science degree in Forestry and Wood Technology at Khulna University. In 2017 he joined WCS Bangladesh as a Program Officer and was promoted to Marine Fisheries Coordinator in 2018, which was redefined in 2020 as Field Coordinator for the Marine Conservation Program. Masum coordinates citizen science networks established among small-scale fishers, and shark and ray data collectors in fish landing site. His insight on sharks and rays support targeted conservation, outreach and policy initiatives. Masum also trains and mentors WCS citizen scientists, and supports community engagement and policy recommendations.
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Samiul Mohsanin
Coordinator, Combating Wildlife Trade - Terrestrial Conservation Program
Samiul Mohsanin joined WCS in October 2020 to coordinate and strengthen the motivation, capacity and collaboration among Government partners to effectively combat illegal wildlife trade in Bangladesh. Before joining WCS Bangladesh, Samiul helped establish a natural history museum in Sreenagar, Munshiganj as research associate for the Padma Multipurpose Bridge project (2016-2020), and worked with various organizations for tiger conservation, climate change mitigation, and avifauna tracking and census. He completed his Master of Science degree in Wildlife Biology from Jahangirnagar University in Dhaka, Bangladesh. Samiul is a member of the IUCN Species Survival Commission (SSC) Bird Red List Authority.
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Mohammed Arif Hossain Prodhan
Coordinator, SMART- Terrestrial Conservation Program
Mohammed Arif Hossain Prodhan joined WCS Bangladesh in November 2016 as a Program Officer supporting our work on SMART patrols and wildlife trade. In 2020, Arif was promoted to SMART Coordinator. In this role, Arif provides training and mentoring along with technical support to the Bangladesh Forest Department frontline staff. He contributed to a SMART handbook that provides guidance for conducting systematic law enforcement and wildlife monitoring patrols and using the results for adaptive management. Before joining WCS, Arif worked as Assistant Researcher for the World Bank funded Strengthening Regional Co-operation for Wildlife Protection Project in Kaptai National Park. Arif has a Master of Science degree in Zoology (Wildlife Ecology, Management and Conservation Biology) and a Bachelor of Science Honors degree in Zoology from the Jahangirnagar University.
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