Abednico Leano Macheme is an experienced conservation leader and practitioner with a strong background in wildlife trade regulation, anti-poaching initiatives, and community-centred biodiversity management. He is co‑founder of Wild4life International (est. March 2022), where he designed the organization’s biodiversity strategy, built conservation partnerships, secured program funding, and established platforms for stakeholder dialogue and information sharing. Under his leadership Wild4life launched an environmental monitoring program in the Chobe Enclave (Parakarungu & Satau) that combines empirical field data, international volunteer support, and community engagement to inform adaptive conservation management.

Previously, Abednico served as Counter Illegal Wildlife Trade Manager at Conservation International (Feb 2018–Mar 2020), leading regional efforts to counter wildlife trafficking, strengthening enforcement networks, and providing technical capacity building for anti‑poaching operations. From 2010 to 2018 he was the CITES Desk Focal Point at Botswana’s Department of Wildlife & National Parks, managing national obligations under CITES, coordinating international compliance and reporting, and overseeing regulation and monitoring of trade in endangered species.

Academically, Abednico holds an MSc in Conservation and Management of Species in Trade from Universidad Internacional de Andalucía (UNIA), where his research examined anthropogenic mortalities in Kalahari lions and implications for prey density, and a BSc (double major) in Biological and Environmental Sciences from the University of Botswana, with a dissertation linking traditional food plants to biodiversity protection and livelihoods. These qualifications underpin his ability to integrate scientific research with regulatory frameworks and people‑centred conservation approaches.

Abednico’s core skills include conflict resolution applied to multilateral biodiversity negotiations (CITES/AU), strategic partnership development, project and time management across multiple conservation enterprises, and capacity building for enforcement. He has engaged widely in international policy and technical fora—CITES, CBD preparatory meetings, SADC enforcement strategies, Africa–Sino CITES implementation—and specialist working groups on species such as cheetah and pangolin.

He operates bilingually in English and Setswana and brings a progressive track record of institutional impact, strategic investigations, NGO founding, and ongoing field‑level monitoring and research—anchored in sustainable, community‑focused approaches to conservation.