Neil Midlane
Conservation Tourism Director, Impact Management, NatureVest
Cape Town, South Africa
Neil Midlane Neil Midlane © Paul Ruffolo
Areas of Expertise
Large carnivore conservation, transboundary conservation, finance
Biography
Dr. Neil Midlane is the Conservation Tourism Director for NatureVest's Impact Management team, working to assist conservation tourism operators in Africa impacted by the COVID pandemic. Neil's work aims to revive and grow the contributions of the tourism industry to biodiversity conservation and community empowerment in some of Africa’s most important wild landscapes.
Neil is part of the NatureVest Impact Management team. The team is working towards the following key objectives:
Neil brings expertise across the spheres of conservation, tourism, and finance. He is a qualified Chartered Accountant, an accomplished safari guide, he has worked in the banking industry, and he founded and ran the Kafue Lion Project in Zambia’s Kafue National Park. His work in Kafue earned him a PhD in Zoology through the University of Cape Town, his thesis produced the first scientific estimate of lion numbers in this critical landscape and identified the key threats to the population. Neil’s findings also helped to establish a fund to combat poaching in key areas of Kafue.
More recently, Neil held management roles in the conservation and impact space at Singita and Wilderness Safaris, two leading African conservation tourism companies.
Neil is a member of the African Lion Working Group, the Mozambique Carnivore Working Group, the KAZA Elephant Working Group, the KAZA Carnivore Working Group and the Transfrontier Specialist Group.
Neil is an avid trail runner and surf ski paddler and spends much of his free time exploring the mountains and oceans in and around Cape Town
Education and Designations:
Articles/Publications:
The conservation status and dynamics of a protected African lion Panthera leo population in Kafue National Park, Zambia.
Midlane, N., O’Riain, M. J., Balme, G. A., Hunter, L. T. B. 2014.
On tracks: A spoor-based occupancy survey of lion Panthera leo distribution in Kafue National Park, Zambia.
Midlane, N., O’Riain, M. J., Balme, G. A., Hunter, L. T. B. 2014.
To track or to call: comparing methods for estimating population abundance of African lions Panthera leo in Kafue National Park.
Midlane, N., O’Riain, M. J., Balme, G. A., Hunter, L. T. B. 2015.
The success of Singita Grumeti.
Midlane, N. 2019.
Big cats at large: Density, structure, and spatio-temporal patterns of a leopard population free of anthropogenic mortality.
Balme, G., Rogan, M., Thomas, L., Pitman, R., Mann, G., Whittington-Jones, G., Midlane, N., Broodryk, M., Broodryk, K., Campbell, M., Alkema, M., Wright, D., Hunter, L. 2019.
A century of decline: Loss of genetic diversity in a southern African lion-conservation stronghold.
Dures, S. G., Carbone, C., Loveridge, A. J., Maude, G., Midlane, N., Aschenborn, O., Gottelli, D. 2019.
The Significance of African Lions for the Financial Viability of Trophy Hunting and the Maintenance of Wild Land.
Lindsey, P. A., Balme, G. A., Booth, V. R., Midlane, N. 2012.
Possible relationships between the South African captive-bred lion hunting industry and the hunting and conservation of lions elsewhere in Africa. Southern Lindsey, P., Balme, G., Midlane, N., Alexander, R., Craig, J. 2012.
The Trophy Hunting of African Lions: Scale, Current Management Practices and Factors Undermining Sustainability.
Lindsey, P. A., Balme, G. A., Funston, P., Henschel, P., Hunter, L., Madzikanda, H., Midlane, N., Nyirenda, V. 2013.
Response of lion demography and dynamics to the loss of preferred larger prey. Vinks, M. A., Creel, S., Schuette, P., Becker, M. S., Rosenblatt, E., Sanguinetti, C., Banda, K., Goodheart, B., Young-Overton, K., Stevens, X., Chifunte, C., Midlane, N., Simukonda, C. 2021.