Biography of Ian Saunders - Executive Director of AEFF
Ian comes to AEFF from a varied and unconventional background, and a long history in Africa. Four generations of his family have been resident, at one time of another, on this continent.
Ian was brought up in England, in Slough near London. There were not many opportunities for a young lad in a place like Slough so after various dead end jobs, Ian walked through the door of his local British Army Recruiting Office and applied to join the Coldstream Guards, one of the British Army’s elite Guards regiments.
During Ian’s time in the Army he travelled all over the world, learning new skills and operating in a wide variety of roles, from guarding Her Majesty the Queen at Buckingham Palace to more specialized military roles which included reconnaissance and intelligence.
After his career in the Army, Ian returned to Africa as a trans-African safari guide and spent time with his uncle in Tanzania. It was clear to him that his real passion lay with wildlife and wild places. He returned to London, gained a place at university as a mature student and, after three years, received a Batchelor of Science Honours Degree in Wildlife Conservation.
After gaining his degree, Ian undertook postgraduate study at The African College of Wildlife Management, Mweka, located on the slopes of Kilimanjaro in Tanzania.
Due to his combined military and academic experience, he was then offered a position with a US-funded NGO operating in Tanzania. His job was to recruit, train and operate an anti-poaching unit to support the Tanzanian Wildlife Division operations across several large Game Reserves in Tanzania.
Over the next few years, as Ian lead his teams in the African bush, they were to become one of the largest and most successful private anti-poaching forces in Africa at the time. Operating independently for extended periods in vast remote areas across Tanzania, they apprehended hundreds of poachers, while coming up against heavily armed gangs of not just poachers but also of insurgents from other African countries outside of Tanzania.
It was while working on these operations that Simon Trevor approached Ian and asked if he could accompany him to Rungwa in southern Tanzania to film the extent of the poaching there.
At the time, Simon was in the process of launching AEFF: the African Environmental Film Foundation.
It was through Simon that Ian met Tanya, Simon’s daughter and now Ian’s wife who was already working for AEFF. Ian joined Tanya and Simon at AEFF full time in 2001. Over the next three years they produced several new films and travelled across Europe and the USA fund raising and promoting AEFF’s work. The first film specifically made by them was entitled “Wanted Dead or Alive?” and showed the plight of the African Elephant in Kenya. The film was premiered at the Houses of Parliament in London in front of many distinguished guests. Later it was narrated in nine different languages and shown at the Convention for International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) in Santiago, Chile.
One of the next AEFF films, entitled “Black Rhino - on the Brink”, followed the history of the Black Rhino in East Africa, from 30 years ago until the present day. Ian travelled to the Garamba National Park in war-torn northern Congo to film the remaining and highly endangered Northern White Rhino as an example of how an entire population could be all but wiped out.
After three years of working for AEFF, Ian was offered a consultancy contract in Afghanistan, which would draw upon his experience in human intelligence and unconventional conflicts, Ian and Tanya decided that a change would do them good and they left AEFF as fulltime employees, but remained on the Board of Directors.
For the next two years, Ian worked mainly in Afghanistan, initially for the United Nations as a Security Advisor, during which time he planned and implemented the security and logistics plan for Kabul region for the 2004 Afghan Presidential Election. Ian spent many months developing relationships with Afghan mullahs, shura members, police and military commanders in remote hillside villages as well as across Kabul City itself. He worked closely with NATO and international governments involved with security and post conflict reconstruction. Ian developed friendships with senior Afghan military and political officials, in much the same way as he had done with African chiefs, politicians and local officials during anti-poaching operations in parts of Africa.
In August 2007, Ian and Tanya returned to Kenya and to the African Environmental Film Foundation (AEFF) as fulltime employees. They now live “in the bush”, bordering Tsavo East National Park. As key members of the AEFF management team, they are taking AEFF to a new level as expansion plans for the Foundation are formulated and start to be implemented.
After spending many years arresting people who commit wildlife crime, Ian strongly feels that education is the only feasible way forward for Africa if it wants to gain the most from utilising its natural resources in a sustainable manner in both the long and the short term.
Ian also has experience of working on bigger television productions. Just prior to joining AEFF, he worked on the the popular “Survivor” series, where he was the Chief Bushcraft and Survival Advisor for “Survivor Africa”. He also advised on elements of wildlife behaviour and night filming of wildlife.
Ian is recognized for his ability to get things done, no matter what the obstacles or what the situation. It is this ability, combined with his wildlife conservation background, which makes Ian the ideal person to head up the operational side of AEFF.
