Clement Cupido

Agricultural Research Council

Clement Cupido is a rangeland ecologist who is currently working as a researcher for the Agricultural Research Council and is based at the Biodiversity and Conservation Biology Department at the University of the Western Cape. Most of his research is done in the arid and semi-arid environments of Southern Africa and he therefore works closely with rural communities whose livelihoods depend on livestock production. Most of his work is of a multidisciplinary nature with the main focus on rangeland (veld) ecology and management (e.g. veld assessments, grazing systems, fire, wetlands, veld restoration, impacts of climate change). He started off his career as a life science teacher in the early 90’s where he shared his passion for nature conservation with young children by establishing the school’s first environmental club. He thereafter completed Honours and Masters degrees cum laude in Nature Conservation. Over the past decade he has supervised, co-supervised and mentored several post graduate students who work in the fields of conservation, agriculture and anthropology at the University of the Western Cape. Throughout his career he served on several conservation boards and was recently co-opted as board member of the Gouritz Cluster Biosphere Reserve.