IUCN Director General Inger Andersen has been appointed to the post of Executive Director of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) by the United Nations General Assembly.

IUCN President Zhang Xinsheng said: “IUCN is proud that its current Director General, Inger Andersen, has been appointed to head the United Nations Environment Programme, UNEP. She is a very qualified candidate whose leadership and talent have made a valuable contribution to IUCN during her tenure here. This nomination is demonstrative of Inger’s dedication to natural conservation of the world but also of IUCN’s importance as the world’s most influential conservation Union – and it is excellent news for UNEP. I send her my most sincere congratulations.”

The 15th Director General of the International Union for Conservation of Nature, Ms Andersen, has headed the Secretariat since January 2015. During her tenure as Director General, IUCN has become an increasingly modernised organisation that has accentuated the contribution of nature to achieving the Sustainable Development Goals, boosted its work with Indigenous Peoples Organisations and grown its GEF portfolio significantly.