2022 WWF Fuller Symposium Speakers

Gabby Ahmadia

Gabby Ahmadia

World Wildlife Fund

Dr. Gabby Ahmadia is a director of marine conservation science on WWF’s Ocean Conservation team, providing programmatic and technical support on a range of marine issues. For over 15 years, she has worked on marine science and conservation issues across the Pacific Ocean and in the Coral Triangle, and more recently in coastal East Africa. Her expertise is in tropical marine ecology, community-based conservation, area-based management, monitoring design and implementation, and evaluating impacts of marine conservation interventions. Ahmadia is from Hawai'i and has a wealth of experience, including in monitoring and eradication programs for invasive plant species in Natural Area Reserve Systems in Hawai'i, marine ecophysiology, and developing rapid vulnerability and resilience assessments for coral reefs. She holds a PhD in coastal and marine systems science from Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi.

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Heather Bingham

UNEP World Conservation Monitoring Centre

Heather Bingham is a senior programme officer at the UN Environment Programme World Conservation Monitoring Centre (UNEP-WCMC). She oversees the Centre’s work on the Protected Planet Initiative, including the World Database on Protected Areas and the World Database on Other Effective Area-based Conservation Measures. Since joining UNEP-WCMC in 2013, Bingham has worked on a range of projects relating to area-based conservation and has a particular interest in the governance of protected and conserved areas. Her earlier work at UNEP-WCMC involved managing a portfolio of work on inclusive conservation. She was lead editor of the Protected Planet Report 2020, which provided a final scorecard on progress towards Aichi Biodiversity Target 11. Bingham is a member of the IUCN World Commission on Protected Areas and its specialist group on OECMs.

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Joji Carino

Forest Peoples Programme

Joji Carino is the senior policy advisor and former director of Forest Peoples Programme. An active campaigner and advocate for Indigenous peoples’ human rights for 35 years, she worked as Indigenous policy advisor and team leader of the Indigenous Peoples’ and Biodiversity Programme Tebtebba Foundation (Indigenous People's International Centre for Policy, Research and Education). Her expertise includes Indigenous knowledge and traditional occupations, cultural and biological diversity, international standards on forests, water, and energy, extractive industries, and corporate accountability, as well as community-based monitoring for local governance. She coordinated an international expert seminar on indicators relevant for Indigenous peoples. Carino has served on the UN Secretary General’s Scientific Advisory Board, as commissioner on the World Commission on Dams, and as executive secretary of the International Alliance of Indigenous and Tribal Peoples of the Tropical Forests.

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Samantha Cheng

WWF

Dr. Sam Cheng is World Wildlife Fund's director for conservation evidence and works across the organization and externally to advance evidence-informed practice in conservation programs. She has extensive experience partnering with government agencies, conservation nonprofits, multilateral institutions, and foundations to evaluate the effect of conservation on ecological and social outcomes and help guide policy, practice, and research. She was the founding codirector of the Conservation Solutions Lab, involved in evidence-informed approaches to community engagement in biodiversity conservation. Previously, Cheng was a scientist at the Center for Biodiversity and Conservation at the American Museum of Natural History, where she was lead for the first US-based center with the Collaboration for Environmental Evidence and was research and evidence lead for USAID's Integrated Natural Resource Management Activity. She sits on the science advisory team of the National Ocean Protection Coalition.

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Joachim Claudet

French Centre for Scientific Research

Dr. Joachim Claudet is senior researcher and ocean advisor for the National French Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS), based at the Centre for Island Research and Environmental Observatory (CRIOBE). He specializes in sustainability science and social-ecological research at the land-sea interface, using place-based case studies to inform management or meta-analysis to inform policy. He is interested in research that helps solve sustainability problems, identify solutions that benefit nature and people, and develop indicators and decision-making tools. Lead author of two Intergovernmental Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services regional assessments, and of the forthcoming IPBES transformative change assessment, he is involved in scientific committees and international working groups including the Ocean and Climate Platform, the High Level Panel for a Sustainable Ocean Economy, and the Blue Climate Initiative.

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Andrew John Rhodes Espinoza 

Ministry of Foreign Relations, Mexico

Andrew John Rhodes Espinoza has been working for the conservation and sustainable use of Mexico’s and Latin America’s natural heritage for over 17 years. He is currently the ocean coordinator with Mexico’s Undersecretariat for Multilateral Affairs and Human Rights in the Ministry of Foreign Relations, serves as Sous Sherpa for the High Level Panel for a Sustainable Ocean Economy, and is deputy chair of the IUCN World Commission on Protected Areas. Previously, he held executive positions at the National Commission for Protected Natural Areas of Mexico that included national commissioner, general director of institutional development and promotion, and director of climate change strategies. He has served as general director of the Pronatura System and central coordinator of the Mexican Fund for the Conservation of Nature’s Fund for Protected Areas.

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Estradivari 

Leibniz Centre for Tropical Marine Research

Estradivari is a conservation scientist and marine ecologist with more than a decade of professional experience working for World Wildlife Fund, UNESCO, and the Indonesian Coral Reef Foundation. She is an early career researcher at the Leibniz Center for Tropical Marine Research and a PhD candidate at the University of Bremen. Her primary research concentrates on improving marine management and conservation to support biodiversity conservation, fisheries, and human well-being, with a focus on the Coral Triangle and Southeast Asia, particularly Indonesia. One of her current projects is investigating suitable strategies to manage and conserve turbid reefs. She enjoys creating infographic materials that can be used to communicate scientific information to the public and policy-makers, and is an outspoken supporter of women in STEM and co-design science issues in Indonesia.

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Jonas Geldmann

University of Copenhagen

Dr. Jonas Geldmann is an assistant professor at the Center for Macroecology, Evolution, and Climate at the University of Copenhagen. His work focuses on understanding the impact of conservation interventions, particularly how protected and conserved areas can mitigate pressures and threats to biodiversity. He served as cochair of the IUCN World Commission on Protected Areas’ Specialist Group on Management Effectiveness, for which he studied how globally applied management effectiveness tools can inform how protected areas reduce human pressure and safeguard biodiversity. Previously a research fellow under Professor Andrew Balmford at the University of Cambridge and a consultant for UNDP and UNEP-World Conservation Monitoring Centre, Geldmann has been on the national board of the Danish Society for Nature Conservation since 2009. He holds an MSc in biology and a PhD in conservation science from the University of Copenhagen.

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Georgina Gurney

James Cook University

Dr. Georgina Gurney is a senior research fellow in environmental social science at the Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies at James Cook University in Australia. Her work focuses broadly on the governance of marine conservation, resource management, and sustainability initiatives. Gurney’s current research program examines the drivers and outcomes of such initiatives, and identifies how to advance justice in conservation and sustainability science, policy, and practice. She employs interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary research approaches, often involving knowledge co-production with practitioners and policy-makers from the environmental and development sectors. Gurney received the 2022 International Coral Reef Society Early Career Researcher Award, and in 2021, was awarded an Australian Research (DECRA) Fellowship. She served as an elected member of the Board of Directors of the Society of Conservation Biology (SCB)’s Social Science Working Group (2018-2021).

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Harry Jonas

World Wildlife Fund

Dr. Harry Jonas is senior director of conservation areas at World Wildlife Fund. He leads the Conservation Areas Initiative, supporting WWF’s work on inclusive, equitable, and effective area-based conservation and sustainable use across landscapes, seascapes, and river basins. He initiated and co-facilitated the international process to define “other effective area-based conservation measures,” resulting in approximately 1.95 million km² of terrestrial, freshwater, coastal, and marine areas reported as OECMs. An international lawyer, Jonas cofounded Natural Justice, which provides legal support to communities across Africa on human rights and environmental issues. For over 15 years, in South Africa and Malaysia, he allied with organizations working with Indigenous peoples and local communities and coordinated conservation initiatives. An Ashoka Fellow and cochair of the IUCN WCPA Specialist Group on OECMs, Jonas received the Biodiversity International Legal Specialist award.

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Dennis Jorgensen

World Wildlife Fund

Dennis Jorgensen has worked with World Wildlife Fund’s Northern Great Plains program since 2007. He came to WWF from Alberta, Canada, where he was a wildlife biologist and gained experience working with a variety of plains species with a focus on prairie rattlesnakes. As bison program manager, Jorgensen strives with his team to support Indigenous nations who are bringing bison back to the people and places embracing their return. He was the vice-chair of the IUCN’s North American Bison Specialist Group from 2013 to 2021, and he coauthored the 2017 IUCN Red List assessment of the status of North American Bison. Jorgensen attended the University of Calgary.

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Stacy Jupiter

Wildlife Conservation Society

Dr. Stacy Jupiter is the Melanesia regional director for the Wildlife Conservation Society. She oversees the organization's programs and projects in Fiji, Papua New Guinea, Solomon Islands, and Vanuatu. She specializes in community-based management, integrated land-sea management, and coral reef ecology. Based in Suva, Fiji, Jupiter was named a MacArthur Fellow in 2019. She holds a bachelor’s degree from Harvard University and a doctorate from the University of California, Santa Cruz.

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Anne M. Larson

CIFOR-ICRAF

Dr. Anne M. Larson has been a principal scientist at the Center for International Forestry Research (CIFOR) since 2012, and currently leads the research team on governance, equity, and well-being at CIFOR-ICRAF. Until 2019, she was based in Lima, Peru, and is currently located in Washington, DC. Her recent work focuses on land and forest tenure rights, multilevel and multistakeholder governance processes, and environmental justice and human rights (e.g., Indigenous rights, gender). Larson serves on the board of the Rights and Resources Initiative and previously served on the council of the International Land Coalition, 2019-2021. She holds a PhD from the University of California Berkeley in wildland resource science, with an emphasis on resource policy and institutions.

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Marion Atieno Osieyo

WWF International

Marion Atieno Osieyo is a global strategist for WWF’s Nature's Contributions to People. Her interest and expertise are in providing systems leadership for environmental justice and building a diverse and equitable environmental movement. At WWF, she set up an award-winning global innovation and advocacy network, building connections between nature conservation and sustainable development goals. She has worked around the world, supporting women's economic rights and youth-led organizing for civic and environmental rights. A recipient of the 2020 WWF-UK Legend award for integrity, she holds an MSc in global governance and diplomacy from the University of Oxford.

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Pablo Pacheco

WWF

Dr. Pablo Pacheco is World Wildlife Fund's global forests lead scientist. Previously, he worked as principal scientist at the Center for International Forestry Research in Bogor, Indonesia. He led a team conducting global comparative research, outreach and policy engagement on forest governance, trade, and sustainable and inclusive value chains. He coordinated the Sustainable Value Chains and Investments team under the CGIAR Program on Forests, Trees, and Agroforestry. He worked at the Inter-American Institute for Cooperation on Agriculture, and consulted for The World Bank and the FAO. Pacheo’s main research areas include governance of forests, smallholder and community forestry, forest management and supply chains, landscape transformation and agrarian change, and drivers and dynamics of deforestation and forest degradation. He has published extensively on these topics, and most of his publications are open access.

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Ameyali Ramos

ICCA Consortium

Dr. Ameyali Ramos is international policy coordinator for the ICCA Consortium. She has worked with Indigenous peoples and local communities for over 15 years on a range of issues including environmental governance, sustainable livelihoods, agroecology, and human rights. Her work has focused on advocating for the outsized role Indigenous peoples and local communities play in the stewardship of nature, on strengthening their collective capacity, and on supporting them so they can meaningfully engage in international policy processes such as the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, the UN Convention on Biological Diversity, and the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change. She is currently the deputy chair of the IUCN Commission on Environmental, Economic and Social Policy. With a background in social and environmental governance, Ramos holds a PhD and an MSc from the University of Oxford.

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Madhu Rao

IUCN World Commission on Protected Areas

Dr. Madhu Rao is the elected chair of the IUCN World Commission on Protected Areas. The 3,000-member commission’s mandate is to develop scientific, technical, and policy advice and advocate for global and national systems of marine, freshwater, and terrestrial protected areas and other effective area-based conservation measures yielding successful outcomes for biodiversity conservation. A conservation scientist with over 25 years of experience, is a senior advisor at the Wildlife Conservation Society. She has worked at the science-policy interface for threatened species conservation, supported the creation and management of protected areas, and engaged in capacity development for protected area management in Southeast Asia. As adjunct associate professor at the National University of Singapore, she co-led development of its master’s program in conservation. Rao has published on topics including protected area policy, threatened species conservation, and human-wildlife conflict.

Carter Roberts

Carter Roberts

World Wildlife Fund

Carter Roberts is president and CEO of WWF-US. He leads WWF in creating initiatives that combine science, market signals, and the wisdom of communities to protect the natural resources upon which all life depends. Under his leadership, WWF has built strategies to scale up the production of sustainable food and renewable energy; double the population of tigers; shut down ivory markets; and protect ecosystems including the Amazon, the Himalayas, and the Okavango Delta. Roberts serves on the boards of the Nicholas Institute for Environmental Policy at Duke University and the Grantham Institute for Climate Change at Imperial College and the London School of Economics. He holds an MBA from Harvard Business School and a BA from Princeton University.

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Lucía Ruiz Bustos

World Wildlife Fund-México

Lucía Ruiz Bustos coordinates World Wildlife Fund’s Area of Collective Action and Innovation on Protected and Conserved Areas. Based in WWF-Mexico, she acts as coordinator for biodiversity and finance. With a career spanning the public, multilateral, and NGO sectors in Latin America, she has over 15 years of experience in biodiversity policy design and conservation finance. Previously, Ruiz Bustos worked for Mexico’s National Commission for Protected Areas, leading teams on conservation finance, private sector engagement, sustainable tourism, and consolidation of inclusive value chains. She has implemented payment for ecosystem services schemes and developed expertise in market-based solutions for biodiversity and protected areas. She has closely collaborated with many international organizations, chairs Mexican organizations, and engages with environmental youth groups. Ruiz Bustos holds a bachelor’s degree in biology and a master of environmental management from Yale University.

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Rebecca Shaw

WWF

Dr. Rebecca Shaw is chief scientist and senior vice president at World Wildlife Fund. She works with experts around the world to identify the emerging challenges to WWF’s mission and advance scientific inquiry to develop strategic solutions to those challenges. She leads WWF’s Global Science team, whose research agenda informs the organization’s global conservation framework and identifies tools critical to achieving WWF’s goals. Shaw has been published widely in leading peer-reviewed scientific journals such as Science and Nature and has received numerous awards for her work. She was a lead author on the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change's Fifth Assessment Report, which focuses on impacts, adaptation, and vulnerability. Shaw holds an MA in environmental policy and a PhD in energy and resources from the University of California Berkeley.

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Candice Stevens

Africa’s Sustainable Finance Coalition

Candice Stevens is head of innovative finance & policy at Wilderness Foundation Africa and is chair of Africa’s Sustainable Finance Coalition, where she works with multiple stakeholders and industry leaders across sectors to plug Africa’s environmental finance gap. A green finance innovator, landscape finance specialist, and tax expert who develops innovative finance solutions for sustainable landscapes, she has experience in protected and conserved area policy and environmental law. Stevens introduced the first effective biodiversity tax incentive into the South African protected areas network and received the UN Pathfinder Award Special Commendation for this global innovation. She sits on several national and international committees addressing financing and resourcing and area-based conservation, cochairs the IUCN WCPA Sustainable Finance Specialist Group, and is a Greening the Future recipient.