Ignatious Kudakwashe Maeresa is a Zimbabwean animal, environmental, climate, and natural resources lawyer, legal and policy consultant, educator and social impact leader with a decade of experience advancing animal protection, legal and policy reform, wildlife conservation, environmental and climate justice, community empowerment and sustainable natural resource management and governance.
He is the Founder and Executive Director of Earth Co-Existence Initiative (ECI), a nonprofit organization working to advance animal protection, harmonious coexistence between humans, nature and animals, climate action, environmental conservation, and the socio-economic empowerment of youth and communities by bridging the gap between law, policy, science, culture and practice. Ignatious also works as a Legal and Policy Consultant on animal, environmental, climate, food, biodiversity and natural resources law and policy, providing legal and policy research and development, analysis, advocacy, reform support, capacity building and strategic advisory services. His work spans grassroots communities and local authorities through to national, regional and international policy processes.
He is also an Adjunct Lecturer at Nature Extant Learning Center, where he teaches Animal Rights and Welfare, Advocacy and Ethics, contributing to the development of future animal protection and animal rights advocates and practitioners. He previously served as Legal Manager and Legal Officer at Speak Out For Animals, where he worked extensively on animal and wildlife law, with the Zimbabwean court system and worked closely with criminal justice players building their capacities in wildlife and animal law and crimes prosecution, adjudication and investigations. He also served as Program Management Unit Lead for the Land and Natural Resources Department of the Zimbabwe Environmental Law Organization (ZELO), where he led legal and policy programmes design and implementation. Ignatious holds an LLM in Animal Law from Lewis & Clark Law School and an LLB from the University of South Africa, and is pursuing an LLM in Environmental, Natural Resources and Energy Law from the Lewis & Clark Law School. He also holds an Executive Post Graduate Qualification in Project Management, Monitoring and Evaluation and numerous professional certificates in environmental, climate, wildlife, biodiversity and natural resources governance and law and policy.
His overarching work is driven by a simple but powerful conviction: “Effective protection of animals, people and nature requires synergizing law, policy, science, culture and practice from the grassroots to the global stage!”