Maurice Ogoma

Maurice is a PlanAdapt Fellow, based in Egerton, Kenya.

He is an environmental, natural resources, and social development specialist with particular experience in community engagement. His expertise and areas of interest lie in biodiversity conservation and research, fisheries and aquaculture, natural resources management, environmental science and policy, and climate adaptation and resilience.    

His experience includes supporting a USAID-funded project on Climate and Ecosystem Smart Livelihoods, which using a participatory process, piloted alternative livelihoods for the Yala wetland-dependent communities near Lake Victoria, Kenya. The project explored agroforestry, sustainable farming, and water harvesting techniques as alternative livelihoods to reduce human-wildlife conflict and support climate adaptation. In addition to this, he has worked on a project Promoting Biodiversity Conservation and Ecosystem Services Enhancement in Agrarian Landscapes, sharing solutions and best practices from Kenya in collaboration with GIZ, AMBERO, and PELUM Kenya.  

More recently, Maurice supported an SEI, AfDB, and African Technology Policy Studies Network project that worked to bridge climate information gaps for capacity development, contributing to the Kenyan Case Study. He has also consulted on the SENSES project that investigates potential socio-economic futures in the face of climate change aiming to develop a toolkit to connect the research community with stakeholders. Maurice provided technical support to the Nile Basin Initiative, preparing the Environment and Social Management Framework for a climate resilience project in 2020.  

Throughout his career, Maurice has published several academic papers which have focused on biodiversity, ecology, fisheries, and aquaculture management in Kenya and East Africa. With this passion for conservation and ecology, Maurice contributed to a report on Bird Areas in Kenya, a paper on how to enhance capacity in conservation, and he has also been part of a World Wetlands Panel discussion. His range of professional experiences has enabled him to pursue his passion for research, travel, and community engagement.  

Maurice holds a PhD in Natural Resources Management from Egerton University, Kenya, where his thesis title was ‘Performance Evaluation of Beach Management Units in Lake Turkana Fisheries Co-management, Kenya’. He also holds an MSc. International Studies in Tropical Aquatic Ecology from the University of Bremen, Germany, and a BSc in Environmental Science from Egerton University, Kenya.  

For more info, please see Maurice’s LinkedIn profile.