Les Welsh

NWF Associate Director for the Pacific & Director of Conservation Partnerships

As the NWF Director of Conservation Partnerships for the Pacific, Les is a steward of the 50 year affiliation of NWF with CCH. Les is co-lead on NWF’s national Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Justice initiatives and promotes Hawai’i’s critical conservation campaign on local and national stages.

His projects include: working with local and national conservation leaders to bring IUCN’s World Conservation Congress to Hawai’i in 2016; mobilizing national support for Papahānaumokuākea Marine National Monument; building a national constituency to speak up for critical habitat expansion and federal recovery funding for our Hawaiian monk seals; co-founding the Manu O Kū Festival along with Marjorie Ziegler and Keith Swindle; and bringing Hawaii’s wildlife concerns to bear on national conservation policy

He co-founded the Great Lakes regional office of Greenpeace USA in 1978 and went on to become Regional Director, working to build conservation partnerships with indigenous and tribal leaders throughout the United States. Les went on to lead LightHawk, based in Seattle, as well as the Pacific Whale Foundation in Kihei, Maui.