The IUCN Green List is a global campaign for successful nature conservation. At its heart is the Green List Sustainability Standard that provides a global benchmark for how to meet the environmental challenges of the 21st century. The IUCN Green List offers locally relevant expert guidance to help achieve fair and effective nature conservation results in protected and conserved areas. It can help guarantee that wildlife and ecosystems can survive, thrive and bring value to communities everywhere.
The future of life on Earth depends on our efforts to nurture and protect nature. On land and in the seas, the impacts of population growth, industrialization, production and consumption patterns are pushing our planet’s boundaries to the limit. We are threatening our very existence through an accelerated loss of ecosystems, wild species and natural processes. We are degrading terrestrial and marine ecosystems beyond recovery, and we are only just beginning to see the real impacts of the climate crisis.
However, we can hope for change, and dream of a greener future. There is already a strong community of men and women fighting against environmental loss in and around protected and conserved natural areas worldwide. They live in remote and wild areas, in the countryside, in cities, in forests, mountains and savannahs, along our coasts and on islands, and out into the seas and oceans.
A protected or conserved area that reaches the IUCN Green List Standard is certified and recognised as achieving ongoing results for people and nature in a fair and effective way. Any site can join, and work its way towards achieving verified success, and then maintain the Standard or further improve .
Any protected and conserved area that gains ‘Green List’ status demonstrates:
IUCN, along with the United Nations Environment – World Conservation Monitoring Centre, maintains a global database of protected and conserved areas. This database, accessible through Protected Planet, lists about 261,766 officially recognised protected areas, covering over 15% of the of the earth’s land surface and 7.4% of the world’s oceans. This figure is only the official record; there are many more conserved areas, such as indigenous peoples’ territories and privately conserved wild areas. IUCN is working to identify and recognise these areas and to bring their achievements into the global community of protected and conserved areas.
Yet, to address the mounting challenges to nature, and achieve a positive foundation for meeting the Sustainable Development Goals, we need more than percentages and hectares or acres on a map. We need these conserved areas to be vital signs of life. We need them to offer hope, regeneration, and good health. We depend on them for clean air, fresh water and rainfall, pollination, and spiritual sanctuary to people all over the world, in urban and in rural communities.
IUCN and partners are committed to making sure that these refuges for nature are governed and managed as fairly and effectively as possible. We want to make sure that the men and women working on the forefront of our battle against environmental loss can and do receive the recognition and support they deserve. Their success is helping secure our future.
The IUCN Green List of Protected and Conserved Areas is the global standard for nature conservation that is locally relevant to a protected area near you.
The institutional governance of the IUCN Green List Programme ensures efficient implementation combined with robust and impartial decisions based on expert judgement and verification.
The IUCN Green List of Protected and Conserved Areas Programme is governed and managed as follows, serviced by an Independent Assurance Provider (ASI) and supported by the IUCN World Commission on Protected Areas Green List Specialist Group.
Oversees the review and maintenance of the IUCN Green List Standard and its adaptations, responsible for admitting sites that achieve the Standard to the IUCN Green List, and makes decisions relating to the ongoing inclusion of sites on the IUCN Green List.
An Oxford-trained zoologist, Dr Mac Kinnon has spent more than 30 years working on conservation issues, especially in developing countries. For 16 years, she was the Lead Biodiversity Specialist of the World Bank. She is also the author of over 100 scientific books and publications, including on protected areas as proven and sustainable natural solutions to address climate change.
Dr Mac Kinnon first served in the WCPA leadership team as Deputy Chair in 2013. She led WCPA’s involvement in co-organising the 2014 IUCN World Parks Congress, a key IUCN event on protected areas held every 10 years. Dr Mac Kinnon became Chair of the Commission in 2015. Her position as Chair was confirmed by the IUCN membership via elections at the IUCN World Conservation Congress 2016.
In 2018, Kathy won the Midori Prize for Biodiversity, a prestigious conservation award.
Kristen Walker Painemilla has been with Conservation International (CI) for 17 years; she is Senior Vice President and Managing Director for the Policy Center for Environment and Peace at CI, leading a staff of 40. The Policy Center provides a path for CI to influence global conservation priorities, policies and public funding that target major international, regional and national policy development processes, in order to amplify CI’s work and create greater well-being for people around the world. In September, 2016, she was elected Chair of CEESP, which contributes to the IUCN Mission by providing insights and expertise and promoting policies and action to harmonize the conservation of nature with the crucial socioeconomic and cultural concerns of human communities.
Retiring from full-time employment with the Australian Government in 2013, Peter currently chairs the boards of the Sydney Institute of Marine Science, the Australian Tropical Herbarium, the Blue Mountains World Heritage Institute, and the Steering Committee of Australia’s National Environmental Science Program’s Marine Biodiversity Hub.
He is a director of Ecotourism Australia and Earthwatch Australia Institute. He chairs the Steering Group of the Protected Area Learning and Research Collaboration, and the Night Parrot Recovery Team. He was elected in 2016 as a member of the Council of the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), and appointed as the Council global focal person on oceans.
Peter was Director of National Parks and head of Parks Australia from 1999-2013.
He has a BSC and Master of Public Policy from ANU, and is a member of the Australian Institute of Company Directors, the Resolution Institute and Ecotourism Australia.
Charlotte is the programme Director for the MAVA foundation in West Africa. She is responsible for implementing MAVA’s strategy, overseeing all projects and partner relations in the region, and managing the regional office in Dakar. Before joining MAVA in 2014, Charlotte worked with FIBA (Fondation Internationale du Banc d’Arguin) for a decade as the marine protected area programme coordinator. She led several projects related to the establishment and management of marine protected areas and supervised the establishment of the first regional network of marine protected areas in West Africa (RAMPAO). She has been involved in several international expert groups related to biodiversity conservation, MPA networks and World heritage. She has extensive expertise on protected areas, conservation and development, community conservation and sustainable development. In the last years, she has led numerous multi-stakeholders conservation planning processes. A veterinary scientist, Charlotte also holds a Master’s degree and a PhD in conservation biology from the University of Goettingen, Germany.
Dr Vinod B Mathur is the Director of the Wildlife Institute of India. He joined the Indian Forest Service (IFS) in 1983. He obtained his doctorate degree in wildlife ecology from the University of Oxford, United Kingdom in 1991. He is the Regional Vice-Chair of the IUCN-World Commission on Protected Areas (WCPA-South Asia) and member of the International Association of Impact Assessment (IAIA). He is currently serving as member of Ministry of Environment & Forests (MoEF), Government of India Committees on World Heritage Conservation, Biosphere Reserves, Management Effectiveness Evaluation and Environment Appraisal of Coal and Thermal Projects. He has extensive experience as an international trainer and his special interest include biodiversity conservation, environmental and strategic impact assessment, biodiversity informatics and natural heritage conservation. He has been actively contributing on research-policy interface issues and is the member of United Nations-Intergovernmental Panel on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (UN-IPBES) Multidisciplinary Expert Panel (MEP). He is also the Director of the newly established UNESCO Category 2 Centre on Natural World Heritage Management and Training for the Asia Pacific Region at the Wildlife Institute of India.
Doctor of geography and university professor, Christophe Lefebvre worked for 25 years at the Conservatoire du littoral and currently holds the position of delegate for European and international affairs of the Marine Protected Areas Agency.
Christophe Lefebvre has been invested for many years in the activities of IUCN In his international activities, he was also personally involved in the activities of the Ramsar Convention on Wetlands and was Chairman of the Scientific Council of Diawling National Park (Mauritania). At European level, he is co-founder of the EUROSITE network, which brings together the main managers of protected areas in Europe, of which he was the Secretary General for ten years. Finally, he chaired the standing committee of the National Council for the Protection of Nature of the Ministry responsible for the environment.
Erika has been associated with Natura 2000 sites for many years, being involved in the early stages of the preparation of Natura 2000 in Romania, since 2003, before the country joined the European Union in 2007. She continues to be involved in Natura 2000 management activities in her current work for the Foundation Propark, where she is executive director. Part of her activities involves participatory management planning and capacity building; she and her Propark colleagues are certified trainers, trying to build the capacity of professionals working in Natura 2000 sites in Romania. Her work has taken her to many parts of Europe, partly through Natura 2000 related projects in Bulgaria and Slovakia and through training events for protected area managers in Croatia, Moldova, Ukraine and other Eastern and Central European countries, including Hungary, Serbia, Latvia, Lithuania.
Nik started his professional career with the Forest Management Institute and later moved to the Lands Directorate of Environment Canada. He took a leading role in bringing broad ecological thinking to the Government of Canada in the developing field of land mapping of ecosystems. In 2001, Nik became the Director General of National Parks. He was responsible for monitoring the ecological integrity programme and the Species at Risk Act, and earned a reputation as a champion of conservation. At the 2004 IUCN World Conservation Congress in Bangkok, Nik was elected Chair of the IUCN World Commission on Protected Areas (WCPA). During his time as Chair, IUCN WCPA has influenced the CBD by becoming their principal advisor on the Programme of Work on Protected Areas. Nik has promoted the importance of youth and has supported efforts to ensure that there is increased awareness and understanding of the value and role of protected areas in meeting such global challenges as combating climate change and desertification.
In Feb 2012, Nik was honored with the J.B. Harkin Award for his life-long commitment to Canadian conservation. More recently, Nik was awarded the Gold Leaf Award by the Canadian Council for Ecological Areas, a medal from the Brandwein Institute and the Fred Packard Award from IUCN for his lifelong work in conservation.
Avecita Chicchón is the program director for the Andes-Amazon Initiative at the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation.
Avecita joins the Foundation with over 25 years of experience in natural resource use, biodiversity conservation, and sustainable development in Latin America, with a particular emphasis on the Amazon. Avecita served as the executive director of the Latin America and Caribbean Program at Wildlife Conservation Society from 2003-2010, where she managed conservation programs in 15 countries that led to significant on-the-ground conservation achievements. Prior to her time at WCS, Avecita was a program officer at the MacArthur Foundation, responsible for grantmaking on conservation and sustainable development issues in Latin America and the Caribbean, and she was the Peru program director at Conservation International.
She received her Ph.D. in Social Anthropology with an emphasis on natural resource use and conservation issues from the University of Florida in Gainesville, Florida.
Stephen Woodley is an ecologist, who has worked in the field of environmental management for over 30 years, as field biologist, park manager, and scientist. He was the first Chief Scientist for Parks Canada where he worked on a number of issues related to protected areas, including developing techniques for monitoring and assessment of ecological integrity, ecological restoration, and sustainable forestry. Stephen now works with the IUCN World commission on Protected Areas, with a focus on understanding what makes protected areas effective in conserving nature. The aim is to place protected areas as a central solution to many of the pressing issues of our times.
Valenzuela has spent almost half her life dedicated to a more peaceful Colombia, and particularly to how conservation can help the country achieve that peace. She has done so wearing several hats—the first being with the Colombia National Parks Agency. During her first five years there, she put her law degree to work by helping create policies related to who owns land in Colombia and how they can use it, especially in and around protected areas—an issue at the core of the conflict.
Her next path within the agency took her as far away from a desk as possible. In 1998, she she worked as the agency’s director of protected areas for the Amazon and Orinoco regions to help negotiate agreements with local communities and the national parks agency.
Now, she leads the WWF team that is helping bring to life what is seen as one of the best strategies for implementing the agreement: Heritage Colombia.
Leads the consultation and review to update the Standard, to ensure it reflects current scientific and technical best practice and remains relevant.
Provides technical review of any adaptations of the Generic Indicators proposed by EAGLs in participating Green List jurisdictions, and makes recommendations to the Green List Committee for approval.
Stephen Woodley is an ecologist, who has worked in the field of environmental management for over 30 years, as field biologist, park manager, and scientist. He was the first Chief Scientist for Parks Canada where he worked on a number of issues related to protected areas, including developing techniques for monitoring and assessment of ecological integrity, ecological restoration, and sustainable forestry. Stephen now works with the IUCN World commission on Protected Areas, with a focus on understanding what makes protected areas effective in conserving nature. The aim is to place protected areas as a central solution to many of the pressing issues of our times.
Valenzuela has spent almost half her life dedicated to a more peaceful Colombia, and particularly to how conservation can help the country achieve that peace. She has done so wearing several hats—the first being with the Colombia National Parks Agency. During her first five years there, she put her law degree to work by helping create policies related to who owns land in Colombia and how they can use it, especially in and around protected areas—an issue at the core of the conflict.
Her next path within the agency took her as far away from a desk as possible. In 1998, she she worked as the agency’s director of protected areas for the Amazon and Orinoco regions to help negotiate agreements with local communities and the national parks agency.
Now, she leads the WWF team that is helping bring to life what is seen as one of the best strategies for implementing the agreement: Heritage Colombia.
Marc Hockings is an Emeritus Professor School of Earth and Environmental Sciences at the University of Queensland. He maintains an active research program on the management of protected areas with a particular focus on monitoring and evaluation in conservation management. He is a long-term member of the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) through its World Commission on Protected Areas where he leads the global program on Science and Management of Protected Areas. He initiated and is leading the IUCN WCPA work on the Green List of Protected and Conserved Areas. He is also a member of the Commission’s Executive Committee. Marc was the principal author of the IUCN’s best practice guidelines on evaluation of management effectiveness in protected areas. He is an honorary Senior Fellow at the UNEP World Conservation Monitoring Centre in Cambridge, UK. In 2008 he received the Kenton R. Miller Award for Innovation in Protected Area Sustainability for his work on management effectiveness.
I obtained my master’s in economics from Garhwal University and joined the Wildlife Institute of India in 1988 as a research scholar. I worked for my Ph.D. on “Economic Assessment of People Forest Interactions in the Elephant Forest Corridor Linking the Rajaji and Corbett National Parks”. Subsequently, in 1993, I joined the faculty of the Institute in the Department of Ecodevelopment Planning and Participatory Management.
I am involved in research projects for generating information on ethnobiology, the socioeconomics of natural ecosystems and the contribution of ecosystems’ services for biodiversity conservation and human well-being. I also develop and implement training programmes to build the skills of state forest departments and other stakeholders in the field of planning for community participation in biodiversity conservation, develop sustainable livelihoods options for local communities, resolve conflict over natural resources and perform valuation of ecosystem services.
astian has worked in the World Heritage team at IUCN Headquarters from 2005 to 2009, initially carrying out the monitoring of existing World Heritage sites, then coordinating the evaluation of new nominations. From 2009 to 2013, he developed and managed projects on protected areas and World Heritage sites at the UNEP World Conservation Monitoring Centre (UNEP-WCMC). This work included comparative analyses of all new biodiversity nominations and global gap analyses of terrestrial and marine biodiversity on the World Heritage List. Bastian holds a degree in Geography and a M.Sc. in Conservation Biology from the University of Cape Town. He has contributed to a number of scientific and technical publications on protected areas and World Heritage sites. Since 2013 he has been a research fellow at the European Commission’s Joint Research Centre in Ispra (Italy) supporting the Digital Observatory for Protected Areas (DOPA) and the Biodiversity and Protected Areas Management (BIOPAMA) programme in African, Caribbean and Pacific countries.
Associate Professor, Natural Resources Management.
Secretary for the Doctoral Training in Natural Resources Management at the University of Abomey-Calavi.
Co-author of more than 35 publications related to wildlife monitoring, endangered species conservation, human-wildlife conflicts, medicinal plants conservation.
30 years’ experience in marine conservation, working for international and national organisations, NGOs and governments. I have helped to develop policy on coastal management, marine protected areas, and sustainable livelihoods. My principal skills lie in programme initiation and co-ordination, policy development, project management and evaluation, capacity building, and the dissemination of information, particularly the interpretation of science for conservation practitioners.
Joanne joined NSW National Parks and Wildlife Service in 2014 and currently leads the national and international partnerships program. She is an experienced conservation scientist and manager with over 20 years experience in diverse roles across state governments, industry and non-government organisations. She has a background is in marine and coastal ecosystems, protected area management and monitoring and evaluation and spent five years in Indonesia leading the coral reef science program for The Nature Conservancy. Her role in NPWS includes working with IUCN to promote the recommendations from the 2014 World Parks Congress Promise of Sydney. As a keen bushwalker and diver, she knows how important it is to connect with nature. She sees the critical need for programs such as #NatureForAll and Healthy Parks Healthy People to ensure that nature and national parks become as important to people as their health and well-being.
Béatrice Chataigner is a Protected area specialist who has been focusing on African protected areas for more than 10 years within IUCN PAPACO program. She’s a veterinarian and after 5 years in West Africa, she now lives in Kenya where she is, between other things, in charge of Protected Areas management effectiveness assessments, in particular of the Green List in Africa. She teaches various courses related to management planning and protected area ecology of the University Diploma and the Master developed by Papaco.
At UNEP-WCMC Natasha coordinates information about indicators that track progress towards global goals, such as nature conservation targets and Sustainable Development Goals. She leads the Secretariat for the Biodiversity Indicators Partnership, and also manages a portfolio of biodiversity-related indicator related work.
Natasha moved to WCMC from IUCN, where she has worked on knowledge products, protected areas information and policy support. Natasha has previously worked at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, both as focal point managing their Rio Tinto partnership, and as a CBD Implementation Officer, representing the UK at national and international meetings.
Oversees the strategic development and management of the IUCN Green List Programme, and ensures it achieves and maintains compliance with ISEAL Codes of Good Practice for standard-setting, assurance and impact assessment.
Jane Smart leads IUCN’s Biodiversity Conservation Group, including the Global Species Programme, Global Protected Areas Programme and the World Heritage Programme. Jane is also takes a lead role in IUCN’s work on knowledge products. She is focal point for the Species Survival Commission.
Jane is currently leading the development of the IUCN position on the Post 2020 Global Biodiversity Framework. Prior to joining the IUCN Secretariat Jane was founder and first Chief Executive of Plantlife International. She was also Chair of the IUCN UK National Committee, as well as a long standing member of the IUCN SSC Plant Conservation Committee. In 2003 she was awarded the OBE for services to international conservation.
Trevor Sandwith leads IUCN’s Global Protected Areas Programme. His role includes co-ordinating IUCN’s work to support national governments to achieve their commitments to conserve biodiversity in protected areas, and to ensure that protected areas are effectively managed and well governed. A broader purpose is to ensure that protected areas play their role in helping reconcile conflicts between conservation and development, and to ensure that they are recognised as vital responses to global challenges, such as climate change, water and food security and disaster risk reduction.
A South African national, Trevor Sandwith has worked as an ecologist in Africa, the Middle East and Central Asia, and most recently in the US and Latin America. In South Africa, he focused on the role of protected area systems in sustaining economic and social development in the transformation of South Africa to a new democracy.
James helps to ensure that priority programmes are well designed and resourced to best achieve lasting results. He has a diverse background in protected areas, community-based conservation, and climate change adaptation. James has worked with protected area issues for conservation agencies in countries in Europe, Asia, Africa, the Pacific and in Australia. He has particular expertise in participatory planning tools and sustainable financing for conservation and is a passionate advocate for island issues. James, a UK and Australian national, has assisted the Republic of Marshall Islands at United Nations climate change convention events. He is a keen supporter of traditional canoe voyaging by Pacific Island navigators.
Tim Badman is the Director of IUCN’s newly established Nature-Culture Initiative, formerly Director of IUCN’s World Heritage Programme. He has been senior IUCN spokesperson on World Heritage, chair of the IUCN World Heritage Panel and Head of IUCN’s delegation at World Heritage Committee meetings since 2007. Tim leads IUCN’s work in developing closer links between the Nature and Culture sectors, including through the World Heritage Leadership Programme jointly run by ICCROM and IUCN with support from Norway.
Tim joined IUCN having worked as team leader of the Dorset and East Devon Coast World Heritage Site, UK. This role culminated in inscription of the site on the World Heritage List in 2001, and the subsequent development of the World Heritage programme on-site. He has been involved in many World Heritage site evaluation and monitoring issues globally. Tim also speaks for IUCN on the special challenges of conserving geological sites, including those sites that protect the most exceptional fossil remains of life on Earth.
Giulia Carbone has been with IUCN since 2006. She is the Deputy Head of IUCN’s Global Business and Biodiversity Programme. She is in charge of the Aluminium Stewardship Initiative and the development of a standard for aluminium sustainability. She also works on tourism related projects and coordinates the relationship with Nespresso. Before joining IUCN, Giulia worked for 8 years for the United Nations Environment Programme’s Division of Technology, Industry and Economics, where she coordinated the tourism programme and led the Tour Operators’ Initiative. Before joining UNEP Giulia worked as a consultant exploring various issues, including survey certification schemes for destinations, and engaging in marine mammals anti-captive campaigns in Italy.
Giulia is Italian, and has a Master of Science from the London School of Economics in Marine Policy and an undergtradute degree in Economics from the Univeristy of California, Santa Barbara.
Director, IUCN Programme Office for South-Eastern Europe
Ricardo TEJADA 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.
Julia Miranda Londoño is a Law graduate from the Pontificia Universidad Javeriana with postgraduate studies in Environmental Law from Universidad Externado de Colombia. She has also worked as litigating attorney and environmental law lecturer at the Pontificia Universidad Javeriana.
She has ample experience and knowledge of environmental topics, transcendental to Colombia as a mega diverse country. She was chief of the Environmental Management Consulting Office of Bogota’s Instituto de Desarrrollo Urbano (IDU). Subsequently, as General Director of the city’s Departamento Técnico Administrativo del Medio Ambiente (today Secretaría Distrital de Ambiente), she faced many challenges in urban environmental matters such as the creation of the Capital District’s Environmental Management Plan and the inclusion of environmental topics in the city’s Land Management Plan. In this position, she strengthened control and surveillance of industrial activities while also promoting clean production and business improvement programs. She also contributed to the consolidation of the Main Ecological Structure of Bogota, as a conservation strategy in urban ecosystems.
She was chosen among the 30 leaders, in the 2014 Best Leaders of Colombia Award given by Semana magazine and the Fundación Liderazgo y Demorcacia, whose work in the arena of the public, the community, the local, regional, national and international contributed to the development of Colombian society during that year. Within this group, she was also awarded the statuette to the top 10 leaders along with Nairo Quintana, Shakira Mebarack, Claudia López, Maurice Armitage, Clara López, Elsa Noguera, Rafael Pardo, el padre Cyrillus Swinne and Nacho Gómez.
Marc Hockings is an Emeritus Professor School of Earth and Environmental Sciences at the University of Queensland. He maintains an active research program on the management of protected areas with a particular focus on monitoring and evaluation in conservation management. He is a long-term member of the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) through its World Commission on Protected Areas where he leads the global program on Science and Management of Protected Areas. He initiated and is leading the IUCN WCPA work on the Green List of Protected and Conserved Areas. He is also a member of the Commission’s Executive Committee. Marc was the principal author of the IUCN’s best practice guidelines on evaluation of management effectiveness in protected areas. He is an honorary Senior Fellow at the UNEP World Conservation Monitoring Centre in Cambridge, UK. In 2008 he received the Kenton R. Miller Award for Innovation in Protected Area Sustainability for his work on management effectiveness.
Madhu Rao is Regional Advisor (Asia Program) with the Wildlife Conservation Society and Development Coordinator of the Asian Species Action Partnership, an IUCN SSC initiative aimed at averting the extinction of critically endangered South east Asian vertebrates. She has earned her Master’s and Ph.D degrees from Duke University and is currently an Adjunct Assistant Professor at the Department of Biological Sciences, National University of Singapore. She has been involved with the development of science-based conservation projects focused on addressing threats to endangered species and natural ecosystems within and outside protected area systems in Southeast Asia and China. She also has experience with capacity development for protected area management in the Southeast Asia region. Her research interests include protected area governance, the exploitation of wildlife and human-wildlife conflict.
Rili has worked for over 20 years to improve the management and financial sustainability of marine protected areas and reduce the use of unsustainable fishing practices in Southeast Asia. From 1989–1993, she developed the marine conservation portfolio for WWF Indonesia. She joined The Nature Conservancy (TNC) in 1995 to help establish the Conservancy’s coastal and marine program in Indonesia.
Under Rili’s direction, TNC’s Coral Triangle Center in Bali was opened in 2000, becoming a center for excellence in marine and coastal ecosystem training and supporting a network of Marine Protected Areas. She was also appointed Chair for the regional WCPA-IUCN marine working group and completed a regional 10 year marine protected area framework (2002–2012). Most recently, she served as TNC’s Country Director for Indonesia from 2004-2008, responsible for the forests of the Southeast Asia Archipelago and the Coral Triangle. She was appointed the TNC Coral Triangle Program Director in 2009 and has worked closely with the Conservancy to launch the CTC as an independent regionally-based non-profit. She holds a Master of Science degree in tropical marine ecology from the University of Leiden in the Netherlands and a Master of Science in tropical coastal zone management from the University of Newcastle Upon Tyne. She is currently enrolled in a Ph.D. program (environmental policy and law) with the University of Leiden that builds upon her marine conservation work in Indonesia.
Elizabeth Bennett is Vice President, Species Conservation, at WCS. Raised in the UK, Elizabeth went to Nottingham University to read zoology, and then to Cambridge University for her PhD on the ecology of primates in Peninsular Malaysia. She then moved to Sarawak, Malaysia in 1984, and lived and worked there for the next 18 years.
Her first role there was working jointly for WCS and WWF Malaysia, to conduct the first-ever detailed study of the ecology and conservation needs of the proboscis monkey. She subsequently conducted many projects for WCS and the Sarawak Government, culminating in her leading a team, with WCS and Sarawak Government staff, to write a comprehensive wildlife policy for the State, and subsequently to head a unit within the Government to oversee its implementation. A core part of the policy and its implementation comprised ways to control unsustainable hunting and wildlife trade.
More recently, Elizabeth has worked to direct wildlife trade initiatives for WCS field staff globally as Director of the Hunting and Wildlife Trade Program. Her work included developing and implementing a policy on bushmeat trade in Central Africa, and working on a strategic plan to address wildlife trade in China. She provided technical support to WCS field staff working on hunting and wildlife trade issues in 65 projects and 29 countries worldwide. She has more than 120 scientific and popular publications, includingco-editing a book which is a comprehensive review of the issue of hunting in tropical forests, and the World Bank policy paper on the same topic.
Her services to conservation have been recognized by her being awarded the “Golden Ark” award by Prince Berhard of the Netherlands in 1994, the “Pegawai Bintang Sarawak” (PBS) by the Sarawak State Government in 2003, “Member of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire” (MBE) by Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II in 2005, Leila Hadley Luce Award for Courage by Wings WorldQuest in 2006, and D.Sc. (honoris causa) by Nottingham University, UK in 2008.
John leads a team of ~25 staff at WCMC working on a broad range of issues relating to conserved land and seascapes. The team deliver key knowledge products such as Protected Planet and Ocean+. These support the global community to plan for biodiversity and development and monitor progress towards international targets. A key element of John’s portfolio relates to global knowledge on protected and conserved areas, including curation of the Global Database on Protected Areas Management Effectiveness. John sees the Green List as an ideal opportunity to strengthen data collection standards on protected areas effectiveness.
Serves as the Secretariat for the IUCN Green List and implements the Programme, acting upon decisions taken by the Management Committee.
To get in touch with a regional focal point, please contact greenlist@iucn.org
