Participants

Borja is Grow Asia's Regional Manager, Responsible Investing & Climate, handling GrowRight, which supports accredited training and investor matching initiatives that promote more sustainable investments and green finance mechanisms in Southeast Asia’s agri-food sector; and GrowBeyond, a blended finance and technical assistance facility that will empower small businesses to accelerate climate change adaptation and resilience. She is a sustainability practitioner with experience working across Southeast Asia. Borj has worked with public and private stakeholders where her responsibilities included developing urban growth policies and strategies for food, agriculture, forestry, and waste management.

Joao Campari is Global Leader of WWF's Food Practice, leading the organisation’s efforts to enhance the sustainability of the global food system. His primary areas of focus are sustainable agriculture and aquaculture, sustainable diets and food loss and waste. Joao was recently the Chair of the UN Food Systems Summit Action Track 3, on boosting nature-positive production. Prior to WWF, Joao was Special Sustainability Advisor at the Ministry of Agriculture in Brazil, where he also served as President of the Low-Carbon Agriculture Platform and as Executive Secretary of the Agribusiness Commission on Sustainable Development. Joao holds a Ph. D. in environmental economics and his research and publications focus on the nexus of rural poverty and natural resources management in agricultural frontiers.

Klaudia has extensive experience in the design and implementation of co-created and participatory research processes that include ethnic and peasant communities, governmental institutions, and other stakeholders interested in knowledge, appropriation, social innovation, and biodiversity management. Through research on ""Culinary Ecosystems for Nature Conservation,"" the biocultural approach, and the analysis of local livelihoods, she investigates relationships with ecosystem transformation processes and the contributions that nature provides to human well-being, involving interdisciplinary and multidisciplinary research around the practices of management, use, and conservation of biodiversity as alternatives to managing life in scenarios of social risk and climate vulnerability with criteria that promote equity and equality.

Dr. Fabrice DeClerck is an ecologist and geographer. He specializes in biodiversity and environmental function with a focus on food systems. In his current role as the EAT Director of Science his focus and leadership has broadened to food systems and their impacts on human health, environmental sustainability and social justice. In this role, Dr. DeClerck leads the development of EAT’s research and synthesis science including the EAT-Lancet Commission (both 1 and 2). He holds a joint position with the Alliance of Bioversity and CIAT of the CGIAR where he is a Principal Scientist. Fabrice is a member of the Earth Commission which proposed safe and just Earth System boundaries and is a member of the French Academy of Agricultural Science. He works with IPBES on its Nexus Assessment. He considers himself fortunate to have been able to work with a diversity of food system actors and farmers of all shapes and sizes. He works closely with those partners and programs as the interface between science and practice. When not working, you can find him on long treks in nature.

Manfred has more than 20th years of experience in the field of Conservation and Development from grassroots to National and regional in Cameroon and within the Congo Basin. He is the founder of Tropical Forest and Rural Development. Manfred has a Master degree in Forestry and Master Degree in International Relations with specialization in Environmental Management. He is responsible for effective implementation of Tropical Forest and Rural Development programs and projects and representation. He is working hand to hand with Countries authorities, donors and partners to achieve Tropical Forest and Rural Development mission “we care for communities”.

Gilles KLEITZ (DPhil) is presently Executive director – Sustainable Development of the French Development Agency (AFD) in Paris. He has been working for thirty five years on the links between biodiversity conservation and sustainable development. He has conducted policies and projects in different countries, including France, for the public service, research institutions, non-governmental organizations and at the Agence Française de Développement. He has been advisor to several ministers, in the field of public policies for the environment, sustainability, rural and agriculture as well as international solidarity and development finance. He has participated in several international COP negotiations. He was the director of the French Guyana National Park and president of the French National Parks board.  He is presently chairing the Scientific Council of the Centre de Recherche Agronomique pour le Développement (CIRAD). Gilles KLEITZ is Senior Civil Engineer, MSc (Agronomy), holds a doctorate in Development sciences from IDS/Sussex University, and has been awarded under the Légion d’Honneur et the Palmes Académiques.

"Suneetha M Subramanian is a Research Fellow in the Biodiversity and Society Programme of the United Nations University-Institute for the Advanced Study of Sustainability. She has more than 20 years of experience in international and sub-national research and capacity building activities relating to biodiversity and human well-being with a specific focus on equity, traditional knowledge, linking policy goals to local priorities and community well-being, assessment of changes to ecosystems and human wellbeing, socio-ecological resilience, policy coherence and joint implementation of policies and actions on Health and Biodiversity at the community level. 

She has been involved in various assessments of the IPBES as Lead/ Co-ordinating Lead author. She has a Bachelor’s degree in Agricultural Sciences from the Kerala Agricultural University, India and PhD in Agricultural Economics from the University of Agricultural Sciences, Bangalore, India."

Alexander Mpwaga has worked for AWF almost 9 years, integrating investments and natural resources management making sure ecosystem functioning is maintained. He has had a progressive exposure and varied experience in conservation linked to livelihood improvement of the communities over the last 12 years. His career covers the areas of private sector development, strategic business planning, value chain analysis and development, facilitating smallholder farmers’ and SMEs access to markets, training, financial brokerage and Public-Private Partnerships. Also, he has experience working on improving nature-based solutions on land-based investments, business engagement and partnerships, better natural resources management (land, forestry and water resources management) and improve policies to bring about sustainable and inclusive growth in the Southern Agricultural Growth Corridor of Tanzania.

Kamwesige is a conservation agronomist. Working in the Agriculture sector of Tanzania for more than 10 years. He has been involved in disseminating conservation initiatives applied by farmers like climate smart agriculture and recently Agroecology practices. He works at the Ministry of Agriculture where he advices and develop guidelines to inform policies and extension services on climate change, environment conservation and livelihoods.

Irene Natukunda from Uganda is one of the coordinators of the Global Youth Biodiversity Network - Uganda Chapter (UYBN). She is a passionate conservation biologist with special interest in empowering youth and young women to meaningfully contribute to the global efforts of halting the loss of biodiversity through policy and advocacy, education and sustainable action.

Roxana Salazar has experience in different fields, mainly with human rights, from civil society, as a member of collegiate bodies, as an independent professional. Always seeking to generate answers framed in the law. She has promoted consultancies and projects, with proven balances in management positions and in design and implementation of policies in the national and international public and private sectors always around human rights. Her experience as a lawyer, researcher, consultant, initiator, executioner, of various projects on issues of national relevance, have given me versatility and a set of skills to actively participate in projects, programs, research, advocacy policies on specific issues.

I am a social scientist working at the French National Institute for Agriculture, Food and the environment (INRAE). I work on understanding and managing conflicts between actors regarding nature conservation and other human activities such as agriculture, and I also work towards improving the interface between science, policy and practice.