Asian Wildlife Conservationist Among Notable Yale Graduates

With nearly 60 percent of its land still covered by natural forests, Bhutan is a country rich in wildlife such as elephants, rhinos, tigers and snow leopards. As a wildlife conservationist, 30-year-old Tobgay Namgyal worked for seven years for the World Wildlife Fund in this tiny country – about the size of Vermont and New Hampshire combined – which is located at the northeastern corner of India.

“My job was to help establish natural habitats for endangered species, including the Takin, a creature that looks like a cross between a musk ox and a moose, and the Golden Langur, a small monkey,” said Namgyal, who will receive a Master’s of Environmental Studies degree on Monday, May 25, from the Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies.

An opportunity to work for the World Wildlife Fund in Washington, D.C., brought him to the United States in 1995. There, he heard about conservation programs at Yale from several alumni, who boasted that Yale has the oldest forestry school in the nation, and is particularly noted for its interdisciplinary approach and for producing a large number of environmental leaders here and abroad.

While earning his master’s degree, Namgyal combined his environmental studies with courses in anthropology, business and political science. When he returns later this month to his homeland, which is wedged in a remote area between Tibet and China, he will become a teacher of other wildlife conservationists at the Bhutan Trust Fund for Environmental Conservation, which he helped found in 1992.

“My contact with other students from all over the world, with the excellent faculty at the School of Forestry and Environmental Studies, and with experts in a number of related fields will be extremely valuable for my work in Bhutan,” said Namgyal, who also studied with David Swensen, Yale’s chief investment officer, to learn how to manage institutional funds.

Namgyal can be reached for interviews until May 25 at 203/787-9697.