Anita van Breda

Senior Director, Environment and Disaster Management

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Media inquiries: News And Press Page

Anita has a knack for starting from scratch. As a masters’ candidate at Yale, she initiated the School of Forestry and the Environmental Studies’ first Center for Coastal and Watershed Systems. And when she saw the need and opportunity for WWF to build relationships with humanitarian aid organizations to reduce disaster risk and vulnerability, she stepped up to start the organization’s humanitarian partnership work.

Anita works with local and global humanitarian aid agencies, including the American Red Cross, to ensure that WWF’s conservation work is applied to disaster recovery and reconstruction in areas such as those impacted by the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami. “By applying environmental conservation to humanitarian agendas, we can rebuild together to preserve both livelihoods and natural resources.” Today, with a more scaled up team, Anita is working with humanitarian aid and government institutional policy to advance green disaster recovery from an integrated human and environmental standpoint

The partnership with the American Red Cross has opened the eyes – and doors – of other agencies. “It’s a great day when you get that kind of acknowledgment – and when it creates more demand for a greener and more long lasting, disaster response,“ says Anita.

What I’m Working on Now

Natural and Nature-Based Flood Management: A Green Guide

Natural and Nature-Based Flood Management: A Green Guide introduces an integrated framework for flood management, drawing on policy, green infrastructure and conventional engineering to help communities adapt and better manage growing flood risk.

 

In The News

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More on Anita

Media inquiries: News And Press Page

Title

Senior Director

Education

  • MES - Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies
  • BA - Biology, Environmental Management Certificate, George Mason University
  • Participatory Rural Appraisal Certificate - Clark University

Areas of Expertise

  • Environmentally responsible disaster recovery
  • Green livelihood reconstruction
  • Marine and coastal conservation policy
  • Community-based marine protected areas and fisheries management
  • Participatory Rural Appraisal
  • Asia, Pacific Islands, and the Caribbean

Appointments

  • Advisory Board Member for the Energy and Environment Unit on the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR)
  • UNDP Civil Society Advisory Committee.
  • Co-lead UN Emergency Shelter Cluster Environment Community of Practice.

Publications

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