IUCN, the International Union for Conservation of Nature

Nick Cox joined the IUCN Global Protected Areas Programme team as Manager for BIOPAMA in March 2013.

Prior to joining IUCN, Nick spent 13 years living and working in the Greater Mekong Region of Southeast Asia. In his previous post with WWF, Nick was responsible for WWF’s species and protected areas programme in Cambodia, Laos, Thailand, and Vietnam. He has extensive experience in large-scale conservation planning, protected area management, species conservation initiatives, strategic communications, and conservation impact monitoring.

Nick’s background also includes a Masters degree in Environmental Science and work on several conservation projects in West Africa, Australia, and Southeast Asia. Before his most recent role with WWF in the Greater Mekong, he spent two years on a Vietnamese prison island in the South China Sea supporting marine conservation projects. On joining WWF, Nick developed and managed its Vietnam marine conservation programme before moving to Cambodia to lead the planning for the Dry Forests Ecoregion Programme in Indochina.

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Christine Mentzel joined IUCN in October 2012 as the focal point for the BIOPAMA programme of the ESARO region. She is based in the South Africa Country Office in Pretoria.

Christine has a background in Zoology and a Masters Degree in African Mammalogy from the University of Pretoria. After a detour into the corporate sector, she began her conservation career in the Serengeti National Park in Tanzania in 2003, working with the Frankfurt Zoological Society.

During her time in Tanzania, she also worked as a lecturer in Wildlife Management as well as running a multinational research project on carnivore diseases. In early 2007, Christine joined the Endangered Wildlife Trust (EWT), a South African Conservation NGO working across the ESA region, as Conservation Manager, where she was responsible for the strategic planning of the EWT’s conservation activities and development of new projects, as well as supporting the implementation of projects within the various programmes.

Career Highlights include project managing the development of an Endangered Species Policy, Strategy and Action Plan for the Government of Botswana as well as the mentoring of various Tanzanian students while working in Tanzania, both at the University and in the Serengeti.

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In the implementation of BIOPAMA, Jose will take advantage of his familiarity with the environmental context in the Caribbean to work together with programme partners to maximize the impact of BIOPAMA in the region.

José holds a doctor in Natural Resources and a Master in Protected Areas. He has 26 years of experience in different issues related to biodiversity conservation and management in different parts of the world. José has held different positions at local, national, regional, and global levels. He has worked with national governments, international NGOs, universities and as an independent consultant. He has also provided support to different countries in the Caribbean on the implementation of the Programme of Work on Protected Areas (PoWPA) and has supported national and international conservation NGOs working in the region.

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Jamie is based in the Asia Regional Office, in Bangkok, Thailand. As the Global Protected Areas Programme's Regional Communications Network Manager, he is responsible for leading communications on the BIOPAMA programme.

Before joining IUCN, Jamie worked for the WWF Tigers Alive Initiative. His extensive experience covers countries in Africa and Asia, including communications work for the International Gorilla Conservation Programme, BirdLife International and the Wildlife Conservation Society. He has extensive biodiversity conservation knowledge at all levels as well as many other skills, including professional writing and editing and project development. A US citizen, Jamie speaks English, French and Bahasa Indonesia, and holds university degrees in Communications and International Environmental Policy.

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Roxana’s role is to ensure effective coordination, communication and liaison between the Programme and the European Commission, the EU Members States associated to the project, as well as with the ACP Secretariat and other stakeholders in Europe. She also supports the general programme communications and the internal communication with the IUCN regions participating in the programme and partners.

Roxana joined IUCN in March 2011. She is Romanian and has an academic background in Communication and Public Relations, Political Sciences and European Affairs. In her previous working experience in several youth organizations, she coordinated national programmes implementation and liaised with European Union’s institutions (Parliament, Commission and External Action Service) and other organizations in Europe.

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