The Coach

My international career began when I joined the U.S. Peace Corps in 1969, following graduation from George Washington University with a degree in psychology. I served as an education advisor in Sarawak, a Malaysian state on the island of Borneo. I then worked as a filmmaker, creative director of an advertising agency, and as a freelance journalist in Singapore and Indonesia, living 13 years in Southeast Asia.

I joined WWF International as Head of Creative Services in 1981 where I created international campaigns to protect rainforests, wetlands, plants and biological diversity; then I managed the WWF Faith and Environment Network. From mid-1992 to mid-1993 I took a leave of absence from WWF to write articles on environmental problems in the Pacific for the Environment Program at the East-West Center in Honolulu (under a MacArthur grant) and to work on a new book based on the Asian explorations of Alfred Russel Wallace. I now write, and advise international NGOs on fundraising and communications. Clients: UNESCO, UNAIDS, Earthwatch, European Osteoporosis Federation, International Center for Forest Research, WWF. I created and run the "Write What You Feel, Feel What You Write" workshops which help people explore their personal journeys.

I travel extensively and have worked in some fifty countries.

Publications

I have written more than 500 by-lined articles for international publications, including: International Herald Tribune, GQ, Wall Street Journal, Reader's Digest, International Wildlife, BBC Wildlife, Earth Times, Gemini News Service, Delta Airlines Sky, Winds, Whole Terrain. Subjects include: the Japanese role in marine biotechnology, the medicinal uses of the rhinoceros, why rats are the most successful animals on earth, attempts to teach American Sign Language to orangutans in Borneo, how a narcotic slime is nibbling at Pacific rainforests, why curry tastes better when eaten with the fingers, and the renaissance of the European medicinal leech. More recently I have written on Asian sacred groves and holy forests, with particular emphasis on how nature conservationists would be well-advised to investigate how traditional conservation methods are still powerful forces for conservation.

Co-author (with Jeff McNeely) Soul of the Tiger: Searching for Natural Answers in Southeast Asia, published by Doubleday (1988), Paragon (1990), Oxford University Press (1991), Sho Koh Na (1993), University of Hawaii Press (1995). Soul is about the relationship between people and wildlife in Southeast Asia. George Schaller, Director of Wildlife Conservation International, said this was "a marvelous book, unique, intelligent, attuned to cultures and filled with stimulating ideas...." Publishers Weekly called it "provocative and engrossing...a solid combination of natural history and anthropology."

Co-author (with Jeff McNeely) Eco-Bluff Your Way to Greenism: The Guide to Instant Environmental Credibility, Bonus Books (1991). Noel Vietmeyer of the U.S. National Academy of Sciences, said: "Covers insights into potentially disastrous global issues in a bright and enjoyable way....opens our eyes to a new and more effective vision of the pathway to environmental sanity."

"Nature: The Goddess of a Thousand Faces", section on the nature of Malaysia in Malaysia: Heart of Southeast Asia, Archipelago Press (1991).

"People of the Asian Rainforest", in Encyclopedia of the Rainforest, Weldon Owen (1993).

"Biological diversity and genetic resources", in Atlas of the Environment, Prentice Hall Press (1991).

"Indonesia's Ujung Kulong National Park" in The Most Beautiful Natural Areas in the World by Vallardi and Associates, Milan, Italy (1991).

Project Initiator: Tanah Air: Celebrating Indonesia's Biodiversity. Editions Didier Millet, Singapore 1994.

Editorial Consultant: Indonesian Heritage Encyclopedia (10 volumes). Editions Didier Millet, Singapore 1996.

Editorial Consultant: Malaysian Heritage Encyclopedia (12 volumes). Editions Didier Millet, Singapore 1998.

Redheads: A novel.

Earthlove: A novel.

An Inordinate Fondness for Beetles, which updates the Asian explorations of Alfred Russel Wallace.

More about books by Paul Sochaczewski