Simon Munthali, Ph.D.

Country Director, Panthera Zambia

Simon Munthali is Panthera's Zambia Country Director, leading the organization's work across the Greater Kafue Ecosystem and the KAZA Transfrontier Conservation Area in Zambia in partnership with the Department of National Parks and Wildlife. He brings more than 27 years of senior conservation leadership across Southern Africa, with expertise spanning wildlife protection, protected area governance, transboundary resource management and biodiversity finance.

Prior to joining Panthera, Simon served as Chief of Party for USAID's Countering Wildlife Crime program, leading regional coordination to strengthen law enforcement, judicial systems and community engagement across Southern Africa. Before that, he served as Chief of Party for the USAID HEARTH Programme in Zambia, providing technical leadership across resource protection, enterprise development, and governance in the Greater Kafue landscape — including early collaboration with Panthera in the field.

His earlier role as Long-Term Technical Advisor for the KAZA Transfrontier Conservation Area deepened his expertise in wildlife corridor conservation and cross-border biodiversity management. He previously served as Regional Director of the African Wildlife Foundation's African Heartlands Program, directing regional land, species conservation and enterprise development strategy across Southern Africa.

A published scientist as well as a practitioner, Simon's work includes research on wildlife dispersal corridors in KAZA, resource protection in Kafue National Park, and — in a paper currently in press — governance inertia and forest loss in Zambia's Game Management Areas. He holds a Ph.D. in Ichthyology from Rhodes University and a B.Sc. (Hons) in Wildlife Biology from the University of Guelph.