Eco-Pulse Team

Douglas Macfarlane Director / Chief Scientist

Douglas has a BSc in Wildlife science and an MSc in Environment & Development. He is a registered Professional Natural Scientist in the field of Ecological Science with experience in the corporate sector and consulting environment. He is amongst the leading wetland ecologists in South Africa and has been involved in developing a wide range of tools and best-practice guidelines. Doug is also at the forefront of offset policy formulation, having led the development of wetland offset guidelines for South Africa.  He has gained sound experience in the design and implementation of offset projects while he also has extensive experience in rehabilitation planning, gained principally through his long-term involvement with the Working for Wetlands Programme.  Douglas also has a keen interest in biodiversity with experience in strategic biodiversity assessments and landscape-level planning.  He has also worked in the forestry industry, and maintains a keen interest in sustainable forest management with a particular interest best-practice guidelines and certification.  

Adam Teixeira-Leite Principal Scientist: Wetland & Terrestrial Ecology

Adam has experience in the fields of aquatic and terrestrial ecology, wetland science and environmental management. He has a BSc Honours degree in Environmental and Earth Science. Adam has >10 years’ experience as an environmental consultant and has obtained various skills in scientific research and development, environmental assessment, environmental auditing, terrestrial and aquatic biodiversity assessments, conservation planning and vegetation surveys as well as compiling water use license applications.  Adam has extensive experience in the delineation and functional assessment of wetlands, the development of wetland management and rehabilitation plans and biodiversity offset mitigation strategies. Adam also has experience in wetland and river bio-monitoring, water quality sampling and analysis as well river health assessments (in-stream and riparian vegetation and fluvial geomorphology). 

Ross van Deventer Scientist: Aquatic & Wetland Ecology

Shaun McNamara Scientist: Wetland and Aquatic Ecology

Shaun has an Honours degree in Environmental Water Management, with a strong focus on integrated catchment management and wetland ecology. He also holds an MSc in Geography with his dissertation focussing on fluvial geomorphology and processes of wetland formation and evolution. Shaun has experience in the collection and analysis of data relating to geomorphology and wetland assessments. 

Ryan Kok Junior Scientist: Ecology

Ryan holds a BSc degree in Environmental Science; BSc Honours and MSc degree in Biological Sciences. His MSc thesis focused primarily on the impacts of climate change and human land use on the species distribution of Malagasy bats (past-present-future). Ryan has a passion for the environment and enjoys the thought of being thrown new challenges. Ryan has 5 years’ experience in GIS and environmental modelling, with extensive field experience in monitoring and analysing data. Ryan also has a strong interest in botany, wildlife and freshwater ecosystems. Since being part of Eco-Pulse, he has been gaining valuable practical experience in a range of aquatic and ecological projects. 

Juliette Lagesse Junior Scientist: Wetland & Terrestrial Ecology

Juliette is a Junior Scientist at at Eco-Pulse with an MSc in Geography from Rhodes University. She completed her studies in early 2017 and joined the Eco-Pulse team in August 2018. Juliette’s MSc focused on wetland geomorphology, which was well aligned with the core wetland focus of the Eco-Pulse team.   She has been gaining valuable practical experience in a range of aquatic and ecological projects.

Vanessa Kahts Finance / Project Support

Vanessa has been in the employ of Eco-Pulse for the past four years.  Her key role is to provide financial management and project support to the consulting team.  Her responsibilities encompass maintaining a tracking system for all project proposals, consolidation of all project deliverables, a project management system to track project costs against expenses and the submission of regular monthly project management reports to the project managers concerned.  Vanessa’s financial responsibilities also constitute the generation of periodical statements and the provision of an invoicing schedule to track invoicing and associated payments.

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