Meet The Team

Dawa Yangi Sherpa

Dawa Yangi Sherpa (she/her) joined the WCS as the Global Social Safeguards Technical Specialist in the Rights + Communities (R+C) Program in 2022. She holds a master’s degree in Environmental Policy and a bachelor’s degree in Biology. Her work applies a decolonial approach to address water and climate injustice, and critiques of false climate solutions impacting the Global South.

At the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS), Dawa supports WCS's Rights + Communities team in advancing global efforts to integrate human rights-based approach (HRBA) and social safeguards into conservation programs. She supports field teams to build capacity on social safeguards, promoting best practices in community engagement, and strengthening capacity across field programs, ensuring alignment with WCS’s human rights-based safeguarding policies.

Dawa also serves on the Group of Advisors for the Tenure Facility (2024–2027) and sits on the boards of the United Sherpa Association, Inc. (2023-2025), Climate Cooperative Futures, and Greens REALIGN. She contributed a chapter to Grassroots Responses to Extractivism: Case Studies from Around the World.