Leonard holds B.Sc. in Natural Resources Management from Egerton University, Kenya and M.Sc. in Environmental Science, Policy and Management from University of Manchester, United Kingdom. He is currently the Regional Wetlands Expert at Nile Basin Initiative (NBI) based in Entebbe, Uganda and working towards building knowledgebase and capacities of Nile Basin countries towards mainstreaming ecosystems and associated green infrastructure in River Basin planning and the restoration and conservation of wetlands and other water-related ecosystems for multiple ecosystems services and overall healthy river Nile. This involves spearheading pioneering work on mapping the peatlands of Nile Basin, estimating their carbon stock and other associated ecosystem services and developing innovative strategy for financial flows and investment in Nile Basin peatlands restoration and conservation. Leonard is an award winning conservationist and has extensive experience on landscape conservation, transboundary natural resources governance, conservation finance and investment, incentives-based conservation, integrated risk management, citizen science, environmental and social entrepreneurship, environmental and social safeguards while working with Nile Basin Initiative, Wetlands International, Lake Victoria Region Local Authorities Cooperation, Ecological Society for Eastern Africa, IDH Sustainable Trade Initiative, Centre for Rural Empowerment and the Environment and Ecofinder Kenya.
