Michael Balinga, Ghana
With over fifteen years of experience in community forestry and tropical and coastal forest management, Michael shares his passion for protecting and conserving biodiversity in West Africa.
Human Interest and Families: This series focuses on our employees who live and work overseas, and how Tetra Tech supports them and their families with their transition.
Michael is the Biodiversity Conservation Specialist for the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID)-funded) and implemented by Tetra Tech Biodiversity and Climate Change Project (WA BiCC). WA BiCC aims to improve conservation and climate-resilient, low emission growth across West Africa while implementing Tetra Tech’s approach of inviting diverse actors to work together across geographic scales to achieve common environmental goals.
Michael became interested in conservation because his father also worked in the field. “I admired what my father did. He saved animals and plants; he taught me to respect all living things. I was just so impressed that I knew I wanted to be like him and contribute my share to make sure that our wildlife had a sustainable future,” says Michael.
As a forest and biodiversity scientist and researcher, Michael enjoys working for WA BiCC because he can address issues on a holistic manner; “by using an integrated perspective, we can understand what’s happening with the environment and how it affects the livelihood of all animals, “says Michael.
For Michael, a climate-secured West Africa would be one that is included in the environmental discourse. Even though, it has a lot of arid areas, “West Africa has potential for conservation,” says Michael. Through his work at Tetra Tech, Michael is playing a part in achieving a resilient world with established networks to reach decision makers and push for climate conservation in the area.
