I am a taxonomic botanist and conservationist. My interest in Carnivorous Plants began pre-University studies. My professional focus is tropical Africa but I have a long record of research on Nepenthes with Matthew Jebb. I have also worked on several other carnivorous plant groups.

I am currently the Tropical Important Plant Areas (TIPA) officer for Guinea at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew and the Technical Advisor for the National Herbarium of Guinea (HNG). I work with our in-country partners, spending up to six months per year in-country, to co-ordinate the project activities. In 2109 we published assessments of 22 TIPAs and nine threatened habitats (Couch et al, 2019) and the agreement of the government to put these sites into the national Protected Areas (PA) network. I am currently coordinating the implementation of TIPAs in Guinea, getting these areas into the PA network. I am coordinating a project to protect threatened tree species in three TIPAs in Guinea Maritime and write a national conservation action plan (CAP) for threatened trees of Guinea. I have a strong background in West African plants, particularly in Guinea where I have been conducting field research since 2005. I have assessed many threatened species for the IUCN Red List, and work on the development of conservation action plans for threatened plants of Guinea, which will feed into the National Action Plan for threatened trees.