Shahriar Caesar Rahman

Shahriar Caesar Rahman is a conservation biologist best known for his work conserving the Asian giant tortoise and Burmese python population in Bangladesh. Caesar founded the Bangladesh Python Project in 2013. He co-founded the Creative Conservation Alliance (CCA) in 2016, a non-profit organization that works with Mru villages in Bangladesh to conserve local cultures and the ecosystems of the Indo-Burma Biodiversity Hotspot in the Sangu-Matamuhuri Reserve Forest. He is a member of both the IUCN/SSC Boa & Python Specialist Group and the IUCN/SSC Viper Specialist Group and serves as a Regional Vice Chair-South Asia of the IUCN/SSC Tortoise and Freshwater Turtle Specialist Group.
== Early Life ==
Caesar was born in Bangladesh in 1987. He was interested in nature from a young age, though his "wonder for the natural world" was discouraged by the high school he attended in Bangladesh. Caesar studied in America before returning to Bangladesh.
== Education and Career ==
Caesar is an alumnus of the Department of Environmental Science of the School of Environmental Science and Management at Independent University, Bangladesh. He attended from 2011 to 2015 and earned his Bachelor of Science in Environmental Science.
=== Research with Mru Parabiologists ===
In December 2011, Caesar began exploring the Bandarban district of the Sangu-Matamuhuri Reserve Forest, home to the Mru people. The Chittagong Hill Tracts were largely unexplored because researchers were unfamiliar with the area's conflicts and the dozens of indigenous tribes living there. Caesar had the idea to try recruiting indigenous hunters. In 2014, he began providing Mru hunters with digital point-and-shoot cameras to take pictures of all the wild animals they find. Caesar and his colleagues at CCA began formally hiring Mru men as parabiologists in 2015. With the help of native parabiologists, researchers recorded the presence of the critically endangered Arakan forest turtle, as well as the endangered keeled box turtle, Asian giant tortoise, and Sylhet roofed turtle. As of 2018, the CCA team has entered into a conservation agreement with six villages in the Bandarban district, establishing hunting moratoriums on highly threatened turtles, tortoises, and other rare animals in an effort to reduce hunting. In return, CCA aided the construction of six village elementary schools and established a Crafts for Conservation program, which has created a market for crafts made by the Mru women.
On the importance of the Mru parabiologists' involvement, Caesar said:“As scientists, we often have this ego that we know everything, but I can have five PhDs and still never have the knowledge that these people have. These people read the forest like pages in a book. You show them a picture of a bird, and they would tell you about when it breeds, when its mating season is, which tree it nests in, where it nests, what its call sounds like. [...] “A lot of information that we collect and publish wouldn’t happen without them,”
=== Awards and Honors ===
Caesar won the Future For Nature Award in 2017. He received the Whitley Award on April 26, 2018 for his work with Creative Conservation Alliance preserving the Asian Forest Tortoise in the Chittagong Hill Tracts. He was awarded the New Explorers Award by The Explorers Club in 2020.
== Work with International Organizations ==
Caesar is a member of the Global Shapers of the World Economic Forum. He is a member of both the IUCN/SSC Boa & Python Specialist Group and the IUCN/SSC Viper Specialist Group and serves as a Regional Vice Chair-South Asia of the IUCN/SSC Tortoise and Freshwater Turtle Specialist Group.
Category:1987 births
Category:Bangladeshi people