IUCN, the International Union for Conservation of Nature

Tim Badman joined IUCN as Special Adviser, World Heritage in August 2007. He was previously based in Dorset County Council (UK) as Environment Policy Manager. Between 2000-2006 he was the team leader of the Dorset and East Devon Coast World Heritage Site, a role which included the supervision of the nomination process which culminated in inscription on the World Heritage List in 2001, and the subsequent development of the World Heritage programme for this site.

Email: tim.badman@iucn.org 

Allen Putney has over 4 decades of experience in environmental management with particular experience in planning, management, capacity building, and sustainable finance related to protected areas.For the last decade Allen has been self-employed as a consultant with assignments mainly in Latin America, the Caribbean, and Africa.Allen was an IUCN staff member in the Washington, D.C. office, and in the southern cone of South America with an office in Bariloche, Argentina.During that period he served as Secretary General for the First Latin American Parks Congress.Previous to that he worked in positions with non-governmental organizations, universities, United Nations organizations, and government agencies.He has been a member of the WCPA (previously the CNPPA) since the 1980’s, and has served as Vice Chair for World Heritage, Vice Chair for the Caribbean, and Leader of the Task Force on Cultural and Spiritual Values.He has written extensively on the latter subject. Allen was awarded the WCPA’s Packard International Parks Merit Award in 2004. He is currently based at Lake Tahoe in the western U.S.

Mariam has a background in environmental planning with the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds, and in ecological consultancy with field research experience in Indonesia (working on sustainable resource use patterns with the indigenous Kasepuhan in Gunung Halimun National Park) and Madagascar (researching dietary ecology of Diademed Sifaka lemurs). She has also held internships with the UN High Commission for Refugees and the UN Population Fund. Mariam also has a Masters in Ecological Management from Imperial College, London. She is a Swiss, Somali and American national and speaks fluent English and French, as well as some Spanish.

To contact Mariam mariam.ali@iucn.org

Leticia Leitão is a Portuguese national with a background in architecture. After an initial period practicing architecture, she joined the office responsible for the World Heritage city of Angra do Heroísmo in the Azores Islands (Portugal). This experience led to an internship at ICCROM in Rome (Italy) and later to her PhD research on “The protection of World Heritage settlements and their surroundings: Factors affecting management policy and practice”. She joined IUCN in 2009, initially assisting with the monitoring and evaluations process of the World Heritage Programme. Since 2010, she works only part-time at IUCN, coordinating the joint IUCN/ICCROM "World Heritage Capacity Building Project", financed by the Swiss Confederation. This work is complementary to her position as one of the members of the delegation of Switzerland to the World Heritage Committee.

Email: leticia.leitao@iucn.org

Christelle is a Swiss national from Valais and has a degree in tourism management. She has worked in tourism for a few years, both in Switzerland and abroad, including in Bristol, UK, and San Francisco, USA. Upon arrival in the région lémanique, Christelle joined Procter & Gamble Pharmaceuticals as a marketing specialist, where she stayed for almost 5 years.

She left the company to pursue a long time dream - a humanitarian mission in Kenya working with a local NGO on projects related to health, education, as well as access to food and clean water. Prior to joining IUCN, Christelle worked with Alcon Pharmaceutical company as a marketing specialist and finance assistant for just over a year. 

To contact Christelle please email christelle.perruchoud@iucn.org

Remco is a Dutch national, but was born in Luxembourg, where he lived until he graduated from high school. At 16, he went on a life-defining holiday around southern Africa, which convinced him to pursue a career in nature conservation. He studied Nature Conservation and Biodiversity Management in the Netherlands, Indonesia and the UK, and graduated in 2008 on the subject of ecological and social aspects of large mammal reintroductions, with the Javan Rhino in Ujung Kulon National Park (Indonesia) as a case study. After his studies, he worked as a volunteer for the Asian Rhino Foundation, mainly on raising the Dutch public’s awareness of the threats to rhinos in Asia. He has also done some work as a reviewer for Pachyderm, which is the journal of the IUCN SSC African Rhino, African Elephant and Asian Rhino Specialist Groups.

Remco joined IUCN in September 2010 as Junior Professional, World Heritage Monitoring, during which time he gained first hand knowledge of World Heritage monitoring processes and experienced the challenges for the conservation of some of the worlds outstanding natural areas. He is eager to continue his work for the World Heritage Programme in his new position of Monitoring Officer, and is looking forward to contribute further to the conservation of the World’s Natural Heritage.

Email: remco.vanmerm@iucn.org

Verena holds a Bachelor’s degree in International Business and is currently finishing her Master studies in International Relations, focusing on transboundary protected areas and peacebuilding.  During her apprenticeship with the German Development Cooperation agency GIZ from 2006 to 2009, she assisted environmental projects in Madagascar, Morocco and at GIZ headquarters. To gain more insight into the sustainability efforts of the private sector, she undertook internships with the multinational chemical company BASF SE and the insurance/finance company Allianz SE. Verena will be contributing to the programme’s work on the conservation of World Heritage Sites, and will also be IUCN’s link person for the Go4BioDiv Youth Forum which will be organized in parnership with UNESCO, GIZ, the Government of India and other partners at the Convention on Biological Diversity COP11 meeting in October 2012. Verena was a participant in the first Go4BioDiv Youth Summit during the COP9 meeting in 2008.

Her position continues IUCN’s association with our partners in the Carlo Schmid Programme, which is run by German Academic Exchange Service DAAD and the German scholarship foundation Studienstiftung des Deutschen Volkes.

Email: verena.treber@iucn.org