THE TEAM

Rachel Wynberg, University of Cape Town, South Africa (Programme Lead)

Rachel Wynberg is a Professor in the Department of Environmental and Geographical Science at the University of Cape Town in South Africa where she holds a government-funded Research Chair focused on Environmental and Social Dimensions of the Bio-economy. With a background in both the natural and social sciences, she has a strong interest in inter- and trans disciplinarity and policy engagement across the humanities, arts and sciences. Her research spans topics relating to just, ethical and biodiverse bio-economies; seeds, farmers’ rights and agrobiodiversity; knowledge politics; agroecology and food sovereignty; the governance of wild species; and emerging technologies and equity in science. As a scholar-activist and policy analyst, she has been involved in research and policy-making relating to biodiversity use and commercialisation since the inception of the Convention on Biological Diversity in 1992, advising governments, civil society organisations and international agencies. She continues to be actively involved with policy debates and civil society movements in southern Africa and globally, serving on the Boards of several NGOs, including Biowatch South Africa and the Union for Ethical Biotrade. She is an elected member of the Academy of Science in South Africa, and was a member of the High Level Panel for a Sustainable Ocean Economy (HLP) Expert Group and a lead author for the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES) Sustainable Use assessment. Further information can be found at: ResearchGate and at www.bio-economy.org.za

Sarah Laird, People and Plants International, USA (Programme Lead)

A forester and ethnobiologist by training, Sarah Laird’s interests cover a range of inter-related issues, including forest-based traditional knowledge, livelihoods, conservation and governance, and the commercial use of biodiversity. Since the mid-1990s, Sarah has collaborated with local communities around Mt Cameroon on ethnobiological research and knowledge exchange programs to support and conserve threatened traditional management practices and cultural forests. Sarah also works on the international trade of non-timber forest products (NTFPs), including their governance, certification, markets, and sustainability, and since 1990 on the ethical and conservation implications of the commercial use of biological and genetic resources, including through the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD). Her policy work today focuses on two pressing challenges: the implications of transformative scientific and technological advances for conservation and sustainable development; and unintended negative consequences for indigenous and rural communities of some biodiversity conservation and sustainable development law. Further information can be found at: ResearchGate

Timothy Hodges, McGill University (Steering Committee and Dialogue Lead on ABS Governance)

Timothy Hodges is Professor of Practice at McGill University's Institute for the Study of International Development (ISID), where his work focuses on global governance – in particular, the negotiation and implementation of international sustainable development treaties by Indigenous Peoples, governments and stakeholders, and the intersects of development, environment and human rights. He lectures extensively at McGill University, across Canada and internationally. Concurrently, he is Principal at Timothy J Hodges & Associates, a collaborative venture of recognized international experts offering leadership training facilitation and confidential strategic advice to governments, industry, private non-profit organizations, and indigenous and local communities. Timothy also provides affiliate facilitation and advisory services to the German Development Agency’s ABS Capacity Development Initiative via GeoMedia GmbH (Bonn). Timothy is a former career Canadian diplomat, with a focus on environmental, economic, and trade policy issues including, for example, in the UN General Assembly, G7/G8, WTO, APEC, the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, UN Food and Agricultural Organization, UNESCO, OECD, Organization of American States, NAFTA, and the Arctic Council. He served as Co-Chair of the Nagoya Protocol, under the Convention on Biological Diversity. previously he co-headed the Canadian delegation to the Cartagena Protocol on Living Modified Organisms and as Head of the Canadian Delegation to the ABS Protocol negotiations. Timothy is past President of the Canadian Professional Association of Foreign Service Officers (PAFSO) and currently sits as a Director on the Board of the Canadian Association of International Development Professionals.

Selim Louafi, CIRAD (Steering Committee and Dialogue Lead on Science and Equity)

Sélim Louafi is Deputy Director for Research and Strategy at the Centre International de Recherche Agronomique pour le Développement (Cirad, Montpellier, France). He has served in multiple key positions at different levels of the science policy continuum: as an academic recognized for research in the Science and Technology Study field on global governance of genetic resources (Marie Curie Fellow, International Visitor Leadership Programme (USA); coordinator of a multi-disciplinary and multi-stakeholder research project on the diversity of crop diversity management systems in West Africa); as a knowledge broker (head of the biodiversity Programme in a think tank (IDDRI, Paris); member of the capacity building task force of IPBES; member of the first international external evaluation panel of IPBES, Qualified Member of the Economic, Ethical and Social Committee on the French High level Council on Biotechnology); and as a policy expert (UN civil servant) in charge of an International Treaty at the UN Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO). He has also led SPI-specific activities in support to FAO work on Genetic Resources policy and has coordinated multi-national work for the Chief Scientist’s Office of FAO to develop draft guidance for strengthening national level science-policy. He has recently been selected as a working group’s member of the EU Science diplomacy initiative (Jan 2024-June 2024).

Sthembile Ndwandwe, University of Cape Town, South Africa (Steering Committee and programme coordination)

Sthembile Ndwandwe is a postdoctoral research fellow at the University of Cape Town (UCT), where she recently submitted her PhD thesis in environment and geography, focusing on local community involvement in the commercialisation of wild plants. She has actively participated in youth and young professionals' programs, including the Environmental Leaders Programme at the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) and the prestigious Charles R. Wall Policy Fellowship, jointly offered by the African Wildlife Foundation (AWF) and the United Nations Environment Programme, which trains young professionals and youth in Africa for leadership roles in international biodiversity negotiations and governance. Sthembile also serves on the national steering committee of the GEF Small Grants Programme (SGP), which serves as the main decision-making body of the SGP at the country level, and provides overall oversight, guidance, and direction to the Country Programme. She is a post-doctoral fellow in the Bio-economy Research Chair team at UCT and is particularly interested in engaged scholarship, digital ethnography, Access and Benefit Sharing (ABS), the intersection of race, biodiversity commercialisation and justice in postcolonial societies, epistemic exclusion in global biodiversity use, socio-ecological implications of cultivation, black geographies, and rural development.

Jaci van Niekerk, University of Cape Town, South Africa (Research and coordination support)

Jaci van Niekerk completed a Master’s degree at the University of Cape Town (UCT) where her thesis examined the contribution of the international trade in an endemic medicinal plant, Pelargonium sidoides, to rural livelihoods in South Africa and Lesotho. Upon graduation she took up a position as researcher in the Department of Environmental and Geographical Science at UCT. She has been closely involved in several projects relating to environmental and social justice and has actively participated in the regional network, the Seed and Knowledge Initiative, since its inception in 2013. She is currently part of the Bio-economy Research Chair team and continues to conduct research into themes related to the Chair such as the commercial use of biodiversity, access and benefit sharing, the conservation of agrobiodiversity, small-scale farmers’ rights, and the protection of traditional knowledge. She has a special interest in the ethics of conducting research as well as strengthening university–community relationships.

Henry Novion (Steering Committee)

Henry Novion is the Director of the Department of Genetic Resources of the Brazilian Ministry of the Environment. Executive Secretary of the Brazilian Competent National Authority on Access and Benefit Sharing (CGEN), Executive Secretary of the National Fund for Benefit Sharing. Biologist, master in Genetics and Evolution, Henry has worked for 21 years in the fields of access and benefit sharing, Associated Traditional knowledge Protection and Previous Informed Consent.

Michelle Rourke, Griffith University (Steering Committee and Dialogue Lead on Science and Equity)

Michelle Rourke is a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the Law Futures Centre, Griffith University in Australia. She spent ten years as a Scientific Officer in the Australian Army where she researched mosquito-transmitted viruses of importance to the Australian Defence Force. She completed her doctoral studies in international law at Griffith University and as a Fulbright Scholar at the O'Neill Institute for National and Global Health Law at Georgetown University, Washington, D.C. Her research focuses on how international access and benefit-sharing (ABS) laws under the United Nations’ Convention on Biological Diversity and its Nagoya Protocol impact access to pathogen samples and associated information. Michelle is a member of the Digital Sequence Information (DSI) Scientific Network, the Global Health Law Consortium and a non-resident Affiliate of the Center for Global Health Science and Security at Georgetown University. In 2024, she was awarded a Discovery Early Career Research Award (DECRA) from the Australian Research Council (ARC) to investigate the international regulation of virus samples and associated genetic sequence data across various UN bodies.

Taukondjo Shikongo, UN CBD Secretariat (Steering Committee)

Taukondjo Shikongo is trained as a multi-disciplinary environmentalist and practitioner and has worked in these fields for more than 20 years. He is currently serving as the Senior Programme Management Officer for the Access and Benefit-Sharing Unit of the Secretariat of the Convention on Biological Diversity. This Unit promotes, facilitates and supports the coordination of national ABS mechanisms and the Nagoya Protocol and their implementation through their integration and mainstreaming within the global biodiversity and sustainable development agendas, and delivers Secretariat services to Nagoya Protocol parties to facilitate decision-making. This is to ensure that the benefits from the utilization of genetic resources are shared fairly and equitably, with a substantial increase in both monetary and non-monetary benefits, including for the conservation and sustainable use of biodiversity.

Fahdelah Hartley, University of Cape Town, South Africa (Administrative support)

Fahdelah Hartley holds the role of Administrator within the Department of Environmental and Geographical Sciences at the University of Cape Town (UCT). She joined UCT in 2005 as a Senior Secretary for the Environmental Evaluation Unit, eventually transitioning to her current position as an administrative and personal assistant to Professor Rachel Wynberg, the Bio-economy Chair holder. In her role, Fahdelah manages departmental administration, provides support to students, coordinates logistics, and designs creative content for a variety of training courses, workshops, and conferences.

Gabriela Alvarez, People and Plants International, Mexico (Design, video and communications)

Linguistic anthropologist and photographer. Gabriela is People and Plants coordinator and video editor and producer for the programs Voices for BioJustice and Traditional Foodways.