Nicorll Maenzanise, a Catmosphere Fellow with Conservation Nation, is the Monitoring and Evaluation Coordinator for Victoria Falls Wildlife Trust. Her role involves supporting evidence-based wildlife conservation research and human-wildlife conflict management in the shared landscape of Hwange West. She is passionate about integrating diverse data streams—including wildlife movement and sightings, conflict incidents, patrols, and community reports—into insights to inform conservation decision-making. She believes in enabling active and meaningful participation of different interest groups in the design and implementation of conservation actions. She leads the design, management, and integration of conservation technologies for data collection, monitoring, and visualization for the research and community development teams she supports.
Lion Research to Inform Conservation Actions and Mitigate Against Human Wildlife Conflict
Nicorll’s project looks to enhance lion movement monitoring and human-wildlife conflict mitigation efforts by training local tour guides, scouts, and anti-poaching units to capture data; leveraging the Earth Ranger platform to activate early warning programs; integrating One Health coexistence principles; and conducting aerial drone surveillance. Through this work, she hopes to gain an improved understanding of lion populations and human-lion conflict to inform stronger mitigation policies, reduce retaliatory killings, and expand conservation strategies by incorporating local community knowledge.