The SER2011 Conference Organizing Committee is very happy to announce the speakers that will deliver the keynote addresses at the 4th World Conference on Ecological Restoration.

Pavan Sukhdev is Special Advisor and Head of UNEP’s Green Economy Initiative, a major project suite to demonstrate that the greening of economies is not a burden on growth but rather a new engine for growth, employment and the reduction of persistent poverty.

Pavan is also Study Leader for the G8+5 commissioned report on The Economics of Ecosystems and Biodiversity (TEEB), a project he was appointed to lead in March 2008 by the EU Commission and Germany whilst still working fulltime at Deutsche Bank. TEEB’s Interim Report was welcomed globally for its fresh economic outlook, showing the economic significance of the loss of nature’s services, and connecting biodiversity and ecosystems with ethics, equity and the alleviation of poverty.

Until July 2008, he was the Head of Deutsche Bank’s Global Markets Business in India, including its Fixed Income and Equities divisions and GMC Mumbai. From 2006 to 2008, he led the build-out of Deutsche Banks Global Markets presence in India into a veritable powerhouse, spanning capital markets origination, trading and sales, a fixed income primary dealership, a market-leading equities institutional brokerage, a newly formed Non-banking Finance Company and also GMC Mumbai.

Pavan pursues long-standing interests in environmental economics and nature conservation through his work with the Green India States Trust (GIST) and other NGO’s. GIST has researched, developed and published methodology and empirical work on preparing comprehensive “Green Accounts” for India and its States, a first among developing countries. Pavan is Chairperson of the World Economic Forum’s Global Agenda Council on Biodiversity, and a speaker at Davos 2010.

Dr. Eric Higgs is Professor and past-Director, School of Environmental Studies, at the University of Victoria. His work is searching for answers to wow can we respectfully intervene in natural processes in a rapidly changing world. He studies the conceptual foundations of ecological restoration, and in particular how people derive and create value through restoration practice, and learn the lessons of humility and hubris. Most recently he is investigating the rise of novel ecosystems, and how restoration needs to evolve to meet new challenges. His work on wild design provides a framework for intervention in rapidly changing ecosystems. He is now in the 14th year of the Mountain Legacy Project, which uses repeat photography to study landscape change in the western Canadian mountains. This work has exposed a collection of international significance, and demonstrated significant changes in snowpack, glacial extent, vegetation pattern, and human activity. He is the author of Nature By Design: People, Natural Process and Ecological Restoration.

Dr. Higgs was Chair of SER from 2001-2003. His teaching and service activities are aimed at showing how restoration improves engagement between people and ecosystems, and opens opportunities for sustainable livelihoods, and alleviation of pressing social and economic issues. He has contributed to policy on restoration, including the SER Primer, Principles and Guidelines for Ecological Restoration in Canada’s Protected Natural Areas, and more recently the development of SER’s Code of Ethics and best practice guidelines for restoration for the World Commission on Protected Areas. 

Dr. Shahid Naeem is Professor and Chair, Department of Ecology, Evolution and Environmental Biology at Columbia University. He studies the ecological and environmental consequences of biodiversity loss. He is interested in how changes in the distribution and abundance of plants, animals, and microbes affect ecosystem functions and, by extension, how ecosystem services are affected. His work combines theoretical, observational, and experimental studies under field and laboratory conditions to uncover the mechanistic bases for the impacts of biodiversity loss on ecosystems. His work has demonstrated how the loss of species from ecosystems affect their ability to resist invasion by other species, affect production and nutrient cycling, and affect the reliability and stability of ecosystems. His current field work includes American northeastern deciduous forests and Inner Mongolian grasslands in China. He is actively involved in bringing the science of biodiversity and ecosystem functioning to conservation, restoration, and policy development.

Dr. Naeem’s activities include training, teaching, and outreach, sharing with both the scientific and non-scientific community current theory and findings concerning how biodiversity loss may impact our environment. Naeem is a member of the American Association for the Advancement of Science the American Institute of Biological Sciences, the American Society for Microbiology, the American Society of Naturalists, the British Ecological Society, the Ecological Society of America, the Society for Conservation Biology, the Society for the Study of Evolution and Sigma Xi.

PLENARY SPEAKERS

Ani Adiwinata Nawir is a scientist specialized in socioeconomics in the Forests and Livelihoods Program at CIFOR (Center for International Forestry Research). She was the leading scientist and country coordinator for the study in Indonesia on Review of forest rehabilitation projects – Lessons from the past’, as part of a six-country comparative study funded by the Official Development Assistance, Government of Japan. Her wide research experience is based on her educational and research background in agricultural and environmental economics for her earlier degrees, as well as from her research in forestry economics and policy.

Keith Bowers is the founder and President of Biohabitats, a conservation planning, ecological restoration and regenerative design firm working to restore the earth and inspire ecological stewardship. Keith currently serves as the global Restoration Ambassador for the Society for Ecological Restoration, President of the Board of Directors for the Wildlands Network, and Ecosystem Theme Lead for the Commission on Ecosystem Management, IUCN. With more than 28 years of experience and innovation, Keith has been instrumental in integrating conservation planning, ecological restoration and regenerative design. initiatives throughout the world.

Dr. Gabriela Chavarria has served as Science Advisor to the Director for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service since July 2010. As Science Advisor, Dr. Chavarria serves as counsel to the Service Director and provides leadership on science policy and scientific applications in resource management. This includes leading agency efforts to respond to changes in the global climate system; shaping the Service’s agenda for change toward a science-driven landscape conservation business model; expanding Service capacities to acquire, apply and communicate scientific information; promoting active involvement of the Service and its employees in the larger scientific community; strengthening and expanding partnerships between the Service and other scientific organizations, particularly states and the U.S. Geological Survey; and cultivating the next generation of Service scientists.

Leanne Liddle is both a scientist and a lawyer. She works for South Australia’s Department for Environment and Heritage as the Aboriginal Parks and Wildlife Programs Coordinator. Leanne manages a unique wildlife project in two indigenous communities in the Anangu Pitjantjatjara Yankunytjatjara lands called Kuka Kanyini. This project aims to improve wildlife habitat, enhance landscapes and harvest species on a sustainable basis by blending customary knowledge and scientiffic knowledge with traditional owners and community leaders. Leanne Liddle is an Arrente woman from Central Australia born and raised in Alice Springs, NT.

Atemkeng Theresia Nkafu is sociologist by University of Buea and planner from Pan African Institute for Development, Cameroon. She has contributed immensely in the management and evaluation of CEDCOW’s projects in Africa dealing with ecological restoration and management. She served for three years with Oasis Microfinance as Partnership Relationship Manager in charge of coordinating the organization’s relationships with all its foreign partners. She also works as an independent Consultant in Community Development through which she has trained women NGOs on issues of poverty alleviation and empowerment. Through these engagements , she had been contracted by both the African Development Bank funded RUMPI AREA PARTICIPATORY PROJECT and the World Bank funded National Community-Driven Development Program (PNDP) for the elaboration of Village Development Plans (VDP) and Council Development Plans (CDP) respectively in Cameroon. Through all these activities, Theresia Nkafu gained considerable practical multi-faceted experience and exposure in the broad areas of sustainable Development and environmental preservation and conservation.

Victor M. Toledo is researcher and professor at Authonomous University of Mexico-UNAM, Mexico City. He carried out many investigations on biology and etnoecology. His work has contributed to understand the relationships between native cultures and nature. He is founder and editor of the journal Etnoecologica. Author of Ecología y Autosuficiencia Alimentaria (1985); La Producción Rural en México: Alternativas ecológicas (1989), México: diversidad de culturas (1995), La Paz en Chiapas: ecología, luchas indígenas y modernidad alternativa (2000 ), La Modernización Rural de México: un análisis socio-ecológico (2002); Ecología, Espiritualidad, Conocimiento (2003). He is advisor of different social organizations in Mexico, particularly indigenous cooperatives and groups.

Elise Buisson is Associate Professor at the University of Avignon (France), in the Mediterranean Institute of Ecology and Paleoecology (IMEP) and is head of the research team Populations, Communities, Landscape. She studies plant communities, their functioning and vulnerability. She is interested in their organization, their resilience and their restoration. Her field work mainly takes her to Mediterranean dry grasslands of southern France and savannas in Brazil and Madagascar, but she also works in dry forests in Madagascar and riparian forests in southern France. Elise teaches animal biology, ecology, and scientific communication and advises B.Sc., M.Sc. and Ph.D. students. She is an associate editor of the scientific journal Ecologia Mediterranea. Elise has participated in the SER conferences since 1998 and is a board member of SER Europe since 2010. She is actively involved in federating the French-speaking community working in restoration ecology to bring practitioners, land managers, researchers, students and elected representatives together.

Sven Wunder worked for Danida, IUCN (Quito, Ecuador), Center for Development Research (Denmark), and since 2000 for the Center for International Forestry Research (CIFOR), first in Indonesia (HQ), and since 2004 in Brazil. Currently acting as Principal Economist, and head of CIFOR´s Brazil office. Main work areas are payments for environmental services (PES), deforestation, and forest-poverty linkages. Has published 10 books and about 50 academic articles and book chapters, including on PES. Has advised both small-scale PES initiatives and government programs, especially in Latin America, on development and design of PES instruments.

Peggy L. Fiedler serves as the Director of the University of California Natural Reserve System, a suite of 36 nature reserves and field stations in California dedicated to university-level research, education, and public service. Dr. Fiedler has spent the last thirty years as an active conservation scientist, working on the rarity, rare plant biology, ecology and systematics of the genus Calochortus (Liliaceae), and waters /wetlands ecosystem restoration. She is a Fellow of the California Academy of Sciences and a Fulbright Senior Scholar.