Turning conservation commitments into impact on the ground

Ecoimpacts is the consulting practice of Rob Craig, an environmental and sustainable-development specialist based in the United Kingdom, providing analysis and field-based advisory services where nature conservation, governance, and peacebuilding meet.

Ecoimpacts works internationally with governments, conservation NGOs, foundations and donor agencies to strengthen the design, management and evaluation of programmes in complex ecological and social settings. It draws on more than 25 years of experience across Africa and beyond to offer practical, evidence-based consultancy aimed at measurable conservation and governance outcomes.

The core portfolio has been international. A growing share of the work now sits closer to home: UK conservation, regenerative land use, and sustainable rural enterprise, informed by hands-on practice at a smallholding in the Cotswolds.

Clients work directly with Rob, who brings in a trusted network of specialists and partner organisations when an assignment calls for more depth. That means senior attention from the first conversation to the final report, and advice grounded in having done the work, not only studied it. A consistent thread runs through it: technical know-how is necessary but rarely sufficient. Lasting impact depends on political buy-in, local ownership, and finance that holds once the external support ends. The aim is never an island of excellence that collapses when the funding stops, but something the people who live with it can carry forward.

Backstory

After degrees in geology and environmental economics at Edinburgh and Manchester, I spent 2001 and 2002 in Costa Rica, working for a smallholder organic farmers' association. The work promoted agro-ecological farming and marketing to support local livelihoods and the Mesoamerican Biological Corridor, focused on post-harvest quality control and organic and fairtrade certification.

I then moved to Kenya for what became, in hindsight, an eight-year apprenticeship in conservation, working for a small consultancy that provided technical support to conservation and natural-resource-management initiatives across eastern Africa.

From 2010 to 2017 I worked for the Wildlife Conservation Society, helping establish and strengthen national protected-area systems in South Sudan and Afghanistan as part of post-conflict reconstruction, and leading on the ground WCS's co-management partnership with the government of Mozambique in the Niassa Reserve.

My last major overseas posting, from 2018 to 2021, was in the DR Congo, supporting the rehabilitation and development of the Upemba and Kundelungu National Parks: securing funding from bilateral, multilateral and private donors, and advising on park operations.

In 2021 I returned to my family roots in the Cotswolds, where I continue to advise on international conservation initiatives under the Ecoimpacts brand while managing a smallholding.