Currently employed as a Senior Manager: Conservation Management in the Kruger National Park (KNP), South Africa. I have worked at Scientific Services in the KNP since 2001 as a fire ecologist focusing on using fire as a management tool in ecosystem management, developing fire policies, implementation plans and decisions supports systems for various protected areas.
In 2015 Ms Govender moved to Biodiversity Conservation in the KNP and now oversees the implementation of the following programs, rehabilitation (dam removals, erosion and alien plants), sustainable resource use, wilderness management, fire and the Skukuza plant nursery. Mrs Govender is a co-chair of the Southern African Fire Network, serves as the Fire Protection Officer for the Greater Kruger Fire Protection Association and is a Research Associate at Nelson Mandela University.
Approximately 20 years of experience as a savannah fire ecologist in South Africa, mainly burning in the Kruger National Park and with Working on Fire, an Expanded Public Works Program in South Africa. Ms Govender has a Masters in Zoology from the University of KwaZulu Natal and is currently pursuing a Phd at Witwatersrand University, working on the SavFIRE (Savannah Fire Ignition Research Project).