Governance

The Landmark Foundation is a registered NGO, registered with the Grahamstown (Makhanda) High Court as a Charitable Trust (IT 656/2004), the Department of Social Development as a Not-for-Profit Organisation (039 – 416 – NPO), and as a tax-exempt charitable entity with South African Revenue Services (930023926 – 18A Exemption). The NGO is audited annually and is governed by a Board of Trustees according to the highest corporate governance standards.

The Team

Dr Bool Smuts
General Manager Landmark Foundation

Environmental Manager, Environmentalist, Project Manager, Fundraiser and Medical Doctor, B.Sc., MBChB, DCH, MPhil (Environmental Management). Bool Smuts practices as a sustainable development expert, with environmental management, socio-economic development and environmental auditing and risk management expertise. He has special interests in renewable energies, protected areas development and management, tourism, species conservation, resource utilisation, and related conservation economy development. He focuses on the initiation of large projects and developing innovative models to expand, consolidate, commercialise and manage conservation areas and initiatives, and related socio-economic development. 

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Dr Jeannine McManus (PhD)
Acting Director, and Research Director

Jeannine completed her MSc in Zoology from Rhodes University and a PhD in Ecology at Witwatersrand University. She is currently a research fellow at the University of the Western Cape and brings strong academic expertise to our work. Passionate about employing science-backed solutions to address conservation challenges, Jeannine focuses on generating evidence-based insights to inform policy decisions and best practice. Her research spans various disciplines, including ecological restoration, conservation biology, ecology, economics, population genetics, landscape wildlife connectivity, and human-wildlife coexistence. Jeannine leads the team’s research efforts and is actively involved in field management, striving to identify and implement best practices for conservation and promote human-wildlife coexistence.

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Monica Vaccaro – Education

Monica runs the education program focusing on schools in our core field work areas. She does talks, activities and holiday programs with schools. Monica has developed a sustainable environmental education node at Landmark Foundation having founded programmes that are easy to implement and scalable across the diverse demographic sectors in our country. She is an art teacher and professional photographer as well as an inspiration to all.

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Dr. Lauriane Faraut (PhD)
Researcher and Field manager

Lauriane’s obtained her PhD at from the German Primate Center, Germany where she investigated to what degree social systems shape communication and social cognition in primates. By combining behavioural observations and playback experiments on wild Guinea baboons in Senegal, Lauriane explored the perspectives of the signaller and the receiver focusing on the grunt, the most common affiliative vocalisation in baboons. Following a research manager position on vervet monkeys and chacma baboons in the karoo region of South Africa with the University of Lethbridge (Canada), University of Wisconsin-Madison (USA) and University of South Africa, Lauriane joined the Landmark Foundation as an ethology expert.

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Expert panel

Dr. Lousie Boronyak – She has expertise in environmental sustainability and stakeholder engagement. Her research focuses on natural resource management and the intersection of animal welfare and conservation biology.

Dr. Dave Gaynor – Wildlife and Research Design Expert, Dave has provided Landmark Foundation with independent research inputs for over a decade.

Dr. Thulani Tshabalala – Spatio-ecology Analyst, Thulani has expertise in spatial analyses, wildlife and ecology.

Dr. Igshaan Samuels – Rangeland ecologist, Igshaan has expertise in rangeland restoration efforts

Mr. Clement Cupido – Rangeland and socio-ecologist, Clement has expertise in rangeland restoration which incorporates social behaviours of local communities.

Current and Past Students

Carolyn Devens – Spatial ecology and density of leopards

Jeannine McManus – Leopard conservation across land uses in the Eastern and Western Cape, South Africa

Erin Jooste – Caracal ecology on various land use zones in the Karoo

Kamila Jandová– Spatial ecology and resource selection of leopards

Louise Boronyak – Drivers of behavioural changes that promote conservation activities in production landscapes

Chris Hasselerharm – Using innovative technologies to monitor ecological changes

Esty Yanko – Evaluating the one-health system by considering social, environmental and animal welfare aspects to promote conservation action

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