Over the past 20 years, Philipp held a long list of positions within the wildlife conservation field, mainly in Central Africa. Starting in 1998 in Gabon, he began work as a Biological Advisor for the World Wide Fund for Nature before joining the ranks of the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS). In 2000-2006, Philipp served as the Principal Investigator in the WCS Great Cats Program’s Forest Leopard Study. During this period, most of his work focused on leopards, a wild cat that has received little scientific attention in Central Africa. However, since 2003, he also repeatedly acted as expedition leader during surveys on lion populations in the forest-savannah landscapes in Gabon, the Republic of Congo and the Democratic Republic of Congo.
In 2008, Philipp earned his Ph.D. in Conservation Biology at the University of Göttingen in Germany, having devoted his dissertation to the conservation biology of the leopard in Gabon. Starting in 2009, Philipp Henschel joined conservation NGO Panthera, as Lion Program Regional Coordinator within West and Central Africa. From his home base in Gabon, Philipp now fulfils the position of Panthera’s Regional Director for West and Central Africa. Over the years, Philipp has contributed to over forty scientific articles and book chapters.