William (Willy) Marthy’s passion for nature has been nurtured since a very young age, when his parents brought him to enjoy and appreciate  nature and wildlife during their holidays in X and Y. This brought him  to choose birds as his main area of research at the University of  Indonesia where he completed his bachelor degree, and continued  through his masters at the Australian National University and PhD  research on the ecology of bird communities in degraded Sumatran  rainforest in the University of Goettingen (Germany). 

He completed his  PhD in February 2014. Willy has been working in biodiversity  conservation in Indonesia since 1998 for various conservation NGOs  before joining the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) in 2014. He is  currently managing WCS’s largest program in Sumatra covering  biodiversity monitoring, Wildlife Response Unit which deals with  Human-Wildlife Conflicts (mainly tiger, elephant and orangutan), and  improving protected area management through enhanced patrolling  systems, capacity building and strategic planning.

Willy manages a  team of 80 staff and oversees support to four protected areas in  Sumatra, covering > 5 million ha of forest, which are strongholds for  the long-term survival of several critically endangered species  (including Sumatran tiger, Rhino, Elephant, and Orangutan).