Saw John Aung Thong is the Operations Manager at ANET. Hailing from Webi in Middle Andaman, John is one of ANET’s first employees, and has been instrumental in all aspects of the field station’s growth and expansion. John is one of the architects of the Andaman Karen Crafts (AKC), a cooperative that ANET helped establish to facilitate local economic empowerment of the Karen community while revitalising their cultural heritage and conserving local ecosystems and sustainable resource use practices. John has been an integral part of ANET’s pioneering surveys and expeditions in its early years and has a wealth of knowledge on all aspects of island ecology and conservation. Currently, John divides his time between the ANET base and Webi and also assists with the activities of AKC.