Ms Rabbya Shoaib

Rabbya Shoaib - conservation practitioner - who built and leads “Rewild Pakistan”, a national conservation programme at the Pakistan Environment Trust (PET) working on species recovery across Pakistan. The program is supported by Darwin, MBZ, IUCN, and national financial institutions. She leads the initiative to reintroduce the GOH Rhinoceros to Pakistan – after a period of 400 years. The initiative has completed habitat suitability and feasibility assessments with national & international experts; secured a 200-acre breeding site allocation within a 35,000-acre rewilding landscape at Lal Suhanra National Park (including the Patisar Lake UNESCO Biosphere Reserve); and initiated technical exchange with Nepal’s Chitwan National Park and the NTNC on cross-border cooperation. The implementing team spent time in Chitwan and Goshi studying rhino habitats, behaviour, ecological preferences, and translocation methodologies. Rabbya holds an LL.M. in International Human Rights Law and Globalisation from Maastricht University and has contributed to Pakistan’s conservation policy framework, including wildlife protection and hunting law reform, carbon offsetting policy, and strengthening enforcement capacity for wildlife rangers, and is currently working on the integration of a national rewilding plan into Pakistan’s National Adaptation Plan.