Abi Wills - Relationships Manager, Boonwurrung Country, Elwood, VIC

Abi grew up in a small town called Ashburton, nestled within Dartmoor National Park in southwest England. She’s long known she wanted to dedicate her life to helping nature.

Abi studied Wildlife Conservation at university and went on to complete a Research Master’s in Biodiversity Management.

Her research led her to East Africa, where she studied human interactions with mangrove forests in Madagascar.

Afterwards, Abi moved to Tanzania. Here, she worked for six years for a not-for-profit providing governance support to villages wanting to establish and manage communal forest reserves for the benefit of themselves and the environment (a process called community-based forest management).

Abi moved to Australia in December 2019 to be with her now husband. Prior to joining the Biodiversity Legacy team in 2024, Abi worked for four years for an environmental not-for-profit combining local training and employment with practical ecological restoration in East Gippsland.

Abi’s role as Relationships Manager at Biodiversity Legacy builds on her strengths and commitment to developing meaningful collaboration and partnerships to benefit people and nature.

Abi is passionate about engaging communities in environmental conservation and management.

She has long been seeking ways to draw on her experience working on decentralised nature-based governance frameworks in East Africa.

Biodiversity Legacy presents Abi with an exciting avenue and opportunity for her to apply and share these learnings in the Australian context.