WLT Honorary President & Trustees

With over 30 years' experience in environmental science and conservation Jerry Bertrand's primary interest has always revolved around the preservation of habitat and species. Former Executive President of Massachusetts Audubon Society, former Chairman of BirdLife International and current Vice President, Jerry is currently a member on the board of the World Land Trust-US and the Brazilian Atlantic Rainforest Trust (BART). He is was a co-founder of the World Land Trust in 1989 (then Programme for Belize) and has been actively involved ever since.

Rohini Finch has been a council member and trustee for four years, and was elected Chairman in 2010. She is also a trustee of Finch family foundation ‘Generations Trust’ which has funded land purchase in Paraguay, and other activities of WLT. She is a successful private investor and business woman sitting on the board of  several companies. She takes an active interest in the Trust's conservation projects and has visited several of the Trust’s overseas partners to see the land purchased with WLT funding.

Currently Publisher at Collins Natural History, Myles started nature watching at an early age  - he recalls his first exciting bird watching experience as watching a hoopoe in Suffolk when he was eight. He has been a keen birdwatcher ever since, but is a life-long zoologist, reading Zoology at University of Bristol. He is very fond of the wild places of the British Isles - particularly the West Coast of Scotland and Ireland. Also Publisher of the New Naturalist series at Collins.

A trained barrister and formerly Member of Parliament, has run his family farm in Suffolk (PDF link, opens in new window) for 35 years. During this time he has built a diverse and successful business, including award-wining vineyard, restaurant and shop, while maintaining the conservation and sustainable management of his farm and 170 acres of ancient woodland as guiding principles. He has been a Trustee of the WLT since 2009 and acted as chairman of the Chelsea Steering Group in 2010 resulting in the Trust being awarded a Gold Medal and Best in Section at the RHS Chelsea Flower Show. He served on the Councils of the Royal Horticultural Society and the RSPB and is currently Chairman of Suffolk Wildlife Trust.

Simon is a lawyer by background (qualified in both the UK and United States). He has always been passionate about wildlife and has worked for environmental organisations for most of his professional life. He worked for WWF for ten years and went on to become Director General of the Wildlife Trusts, one of the largest conservation organisations in the UK. More recently he was Chief Executive of LEAD International (Leadership in Environment and Development) and he also sits on the Board of several wildlife conservation charities. Simon is a regular visitor to Brazil. His wife is Brazilian and runs conservation programmes for WWF-UK.

One of Britain's best known wildlife artists, Bruce was President of the Society of Wildlife Artists for 10 years. He was the illustrator of Rare Mammals of the World (written by John & Vivien Burton) published in 1987, and has been a supporter of Green Ink since its inception. Bruce regularly donates original artwork for the WLT to sell, to raise funds for its projects.

Jonathan Self is an author and journalist. He writes on a wide range of subjects including farming and the environment for, amongst other publications, Country Life and the Times. His early career was spent in advertising and he uses this experience to do pro-bono fundraising and PR work for various non-profit organisations. He has been a supporter of the Trust for over two decades and spearheads the Green Ink and WLT Ambassadors programmes.

Nigel Simpson is a professional chemist who specialises in materials science and ophthalmology. With a lifelong interest in natural history, he has been active in conservation in the Gloucestershire Wye Valley since 1970, and was a co-founder of Fundación Jocotoco established in 1998 and founder of The Simpson Education and Conservation Trust (SECT). As well as being a WLT Trustee Nigel is also a member of the boards of Fundación Jocotoco and Fundación Ecominga and was awarded the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in 2005, for his "services to environmental conservation and the local communities in Ecuador".

For 10 years between 2003 and 2013 Miranda Stevenson was Director of the British and Irish Association of Zoos and Aquariums (BIAZA). During that time she helped develop the WLT-BIAZA partnership which led to the creation of the BIAZA Reserve in the Atlantic Rainforest of Brazil in 2010, and subsequently the BIAZA Keepers of the Wild programme. She became a Trustee of World Land Trust in 2013.

A WLT supporter for many years, Andrew von Preussen became a Trustee in 2011. He trained as a commercial pilot in 1970, after which he flew helicopters with British Executive Air Services from Oxford airport at Kidlington before setting up an aerial filming company called Air Film Services in 1975.  For the last 15 years he has concentrated on farming at Thorpe Hall at Horham in Suffolk.