IUCN Editorial Board

The IUCN Editorial Board members:

Dr Thomas BROOKS – Co-Chair, IUCN Editorial Board. Tom is Chief Scientist at IUCN. He is an ecologist, geographer, and ornithologist by education, with a BA (Hons) in Geography from the University of Cambridge (1993) and a PhD in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology from the University of Tennessee (1998). He has held biodiversity science positions in NatureServe, Conservation International and The Nature Conservancy, as well as visiting appointments at the World Agroforestry Centre (ICRAF) in the University of the Philippines Los Baños and in the Department of Geography of the University of Tasmania. His field experience is primarily from tropical forest hotspots, in Kenya, Paraguay, Indonesia, and the Philippines. Tom served on the Executive Committee of the BP Conservation Leadership Programme (2002–2010), and co-chaired the IUCN World Commission on Protected Areas/Species Survival Commission Joint Taskforce on ‘Biodiversity and Protected Areas’ (2009–2013). He has authored more than 230 scientific and popular articles. 

Dr Juha SIIKAMÄKI – Co-Chair, IUCN Editorial Board. Juha is Chief Economist at IUCN. He is a graduate of the University of California at Davis and University of Helsinki with the unique combined skills focusing on environmental and natural resource economics but also encompassing forestry, agronomy, and ecology. Throughout his career, he has specialised in the economics of ecosystems and nature, including economic valuation of ecosystem services, benefit-cost evaluations of conservation programmes, and spatial targeting of conservation investments. His career spans two decades of policy-relevant work. Since 2004, Juha worked at Resources for the Future (RFF), a non-partisan research organisation based in Washington DC, most recently as Associate Research Director and Thomas J. Klutznick Senior Fellow. Prior to joining RFF, he was a Senior Economist at Arcadis company. He also has experience from University of California at Davis and Natural Resources Institute Finland. 

Ricardo TEJADA – Ricardo is Director Global Communications at IUCN. Previous to joining IUCN he was Senior Communications Adviser and Senior Editor at the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). Ricardo has also worked as Director of Communications for two major UK media groups and as an adviser in the office of US Labor Secretary Robert Reich under President Bill Clinton. He holds a Master’s degree in international relations from the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, Tufts University, and a Bachelor’s degree in international economics from the American University of Paris.

Firas T. ABD-ALHADI – CEC. Firas is the Vice Chair for West Asia in the IUCN Commission on Education and Communication (CEC) since 2018. He works as the Adviser to the Secretary-General of the Ministry of Industry and Trade in Jordan, focusing on promoting sustainable economic development and regional cooperation. As a communication specialist with over 30 years of experience in designing communication strategies, Firas held several senior positions such as the Regional Communication and Documentation Specialist in the EMPOWERS (the Euro-Med Participatory Water Resources Scenarios) Partnership. Although that was not his first encounter with environmental issues, this project that was implemented during 2003-2007 introduced Firas to the practice of building knowledge communities based on multi-level stakeholder platforms as to develop individual and institutional capacities for better natural resources management. He is a board member of a scientific community platform, the Arab World Association of Young Scientists (ArabWAYS). Firas has authored, edited or translated several publications on economic, social and environmental issues. He holds an M.A. in English Literature (1997) and a double major B.A. in Arabic and English (1991), both from the University of Jordan in Amman, Jordan.

Dr Aroha Te Pareake MEAD – CEESP. Aroha served as Chair of the IUCN Commission on Environmental, Economic, and Social Policy (CEESP) (2009–2016). She is from the Ngāti Awa and Ngāti Porou tribes (Māori) of Aotearoa, New Zealand. She is a Senior Lecturer and Programme Director of Māori Business, Victoria Management School, Victoria University of Wellington. She has been involved in indigenous cultural and intellectual property and environmental issues for over 30 years at tribal, national, Pacific regional and international levels. Aroha previously worked as the National Policy Director for Te Tau Ihu o NgāWānanga – the National Secretariat for the three Māori/tribal universities: Te Whare Wānanga o Awanuiārangi, Te Wānanga o Aotearoa and Te Wānanga o Raukawa, and before that she held managerial positions in Te Puni Kōkiri, the Ministry of Māori Development. Aroha led the organisation of the conference that developed the 1993 Mataatua Declaration on Cultural and Intellectual Property Rights of Indigenous Peoples, the 1994 Roundtable of Indigenous Peoples and Self-Determination, and the 6th International Conference of Ethno biologists, as well as numerous national, regional and international conferences on traditional knowledge, cultural and intellectual property rights, biodiversity and genetic resources.

Dr Samira OMAR ASEM – CEM. Samira was an IUCN Councillor for West Asia (2013–2016) and is a member of the IUCN Commission on Ecosystem Management (CEM). She has more than 37 years of experience in management and leadership in R&D related to biodiversity conservation, agriculture and environment at the Kuwait Institute for Scientific Research (KISR). She attained her PhD in Wild Land Resource Sciences from the University of California, Berkeley in 1990, MSc in Range Management from the University of California, Berkeley, and BSc in Botany and Chemistry from Kuwait University. During her career as Director for the Food Resources and Marine Sciences Division at KISR, she has been responsible for six programmes: Aridland Agriculture Production; Biodiversity for Terrestrial Ecosystem; Food and Nutrition Production; Ecosystem Based Management for Marine; Aquaculture; and Biotechnology. She has national, regional and international recognitions and has been affiliated to many local and international organisations. She has published 30 refereed journal papers, 101 books and proceedings and 103 technical reports. Samira is the Technical Program Director of the Kuwait Environmental Remediation Program awarded by the United Nations Compensation Commission (UNCC) and is responsible for supervising the implementation of the programme at the government level to ensure proper and transparent implementation of the programme according to the UNCC decisions.   

Ehab EID – SSC. Ehab is a steering committee member of the IUCN Species Survival Commission (SSC), and the vice-chair of both the SSC and EAGL of West Asia. He is an expert in biodiversity conservation, CITES and protected areas management from Jordan and the West Asia region. He holds a master degree in conservation, access and management of species in trade from the International University of Andalucía, Spain, and a B.Sc. degree in biological science from the University of Jordan. He has published several peer-reviewed articles, books, guidelines and strategies, with among his latest publications an atlas of the snakes of Jordan, the Red Data book of mammals in Jordan and The Hard Corals of Jordan. He has contributed to mainstream biodiversity conservation into climate change where he led the development of the biodiversity and ecosystems chapters in the third and fourth national communication reports, national adaptation plan and the NDCs. He has also led the development of the National Biodiversity Strategy and Action Plan in Jordan and neighbouring countries. He has reviewed several articles for peer-reviewed journals and contributed to the GEO6 report. 

 Patricia Kameri-Mbote – WCEL. Patricia is the Director of the Law Division at UNEP and member of the IUCN World Commission on Environmental Law. She leads the Law Division charged with carrying out the functions of UNEP in the field of environmental law, governance, and related policy issues. Previously, Patricia was Founding Research Director of the International Environmental Law Research Centre (IELRC). She is a member of the Senior Counsel Bar in Kenya and a Professor of Law. Patricia holds Doctorate (1999) and Master’s (1996) degrees in law from Stanford University and a higher doctorate from the University of Nairobi (2019). These have focused on environmental law and its interactions with other areas of law such as property law and women’s law. Patricia also holds a Master’s degree from Warwick University (1989) and was awarded an honorary degree in law by the University of Oslo (UiO) in 2017 for her work cutting across established fields of Women’s Law, Natural Resources Law, Human Rights and Law and Development.

Sue STOLTON – WCPA. Sue is a member of the IUCN World Commission on Protected Areas (WCPA) and the IUCN Commission on Environmental, Economic and Social Policy (CEESP). She established Equilibrium Research in partnership with Nigel Dudley in 1991. Equilibrium promotes positive environmental and social change by linking targeted research to field application. Between them Sue and Nigel have authored well over 200 books and reports, worked in over 90 countries worldwide and worked with over 70 organisations. She is an Honorary Fellow of the UNEP World Conservation Monitoring Centre and the Institute for European Environmental Policy. She has a degree in social history.