Commission Chair. Dr. Madhu Rao is the Chair of the IUCN WCPA, Senior Advisor of the Wildlife Conservation Society, and an Adjunct Associate Professor at the National University of Singapore with over ...
WCPA Steering Committee Members
The WCPA Steering Committee is the principal governing body of WCPA. Its members are appointed by the WCPA Chair and approved by the IUCN Council. The Committee meets once a year to report on WCPA activities and to discuss important upcoming events, initiatives, and priorities.

Dr Madhu RAO
Mr Andrew RHODES ESPINOZA
Deputy Chair. Andrew John Rhodes Espinoza tiene más de 16 años de experiencia laboral trabajando para la conservación, uso y aprovechamiento sustentable de la riqueza natural de México, cuenta con un ...
Mr Allan VALVERDE BLANCO
Regional Vice Chair, Caribbean and Central America. Allan Valverde is Director of the Latin American School of Protected Areas (ELAP), professor and tutor at several academic programs at the ...
Prof Amran HAMZAH
Regional Vice Chair, Southeast Asia. I am currently a Professor in Tourism Planning at Universiti Teknologi Malaysia. My area of specialisation is the interface between community-based ecotourism and ...
Ms Erika STANCIU
Regional Vice Chair, Europe. Erika Stanciu started to work in and for protected areas after 12 years of activity in forest management. She contributed to the establishment of the protected area ...
Dr Florence PALLA
Regional Vice Chair, West and Central Africa. Coordinator of the regional project to support the Central African Forest Observatory with a focus on the observation of Protected Areas in synergy with ...
Mr Lou SANSON
Regional Vice Chair, Oceania. Lou Sanson has 40 years experience in conservation. He originally trained as a research scientist in mountainland management with Forest Research Institute in New Zealand ...
Ms Mariana BELLOT
Mariana Bellot-Rojas is an experienced leader who has spent 20 years working on biodiversity conservation and finance, protected areas, nature-based solutions, and international negotiation processes ...
Mr Nizar HANI
Regional Vice Chair, North Africa, West Asia, Middle East. Nizar Hani, Biochemistry Diploma, Master in Agricultural Sciences, PHD student in Ethnobotany, his PHD research includes an ethnobotanical ...
Mrs Paula BUENO
Regional Vice Chair, South America. M.Sc. in Sustainability Science, Resilience and Global Change. With over 15 years of experience, I have an on-going career in biodiversity conservation at the ...
Dr Harriet DAVIES-MOSTERT
Dr Harriet Davies-Mostert is currently the Director of Impact for Conserve Global, providing strategic oversight for business information systems, monitoring and impact evaluation, and scientific ...
Dr SONALI GHOSH
Regional Vice Chair, South Asia. I bring in more than 15 years of field experience of living and working in some of the critical ecosystems such as Terai grasslands of the Indian subcontinent. In ...
Ms Tatjana ROSEN
Regional Vice Chair, North Eurasia. Tatjana (Tanya) Rosen received a Masters of Science in Social Ecology at Yale University, Master of Laws at Harvard University and a Juris Doctor from Italy’s ...
Prof Yoshitaka KUMAGAI
Regional Vice Chair, East Asia. Dr. Kumagai is currently the Vice President, trustee, and Professor at Akita International University in Japan. He has been serving as Regional Vice Chair of IUCN WCPA ...
Mr Brent MITCHELL
Thematic Vice Chair, Scaling Natural Solutions. Brent A. Mitchell, American, began his career in the Caribbean and Latin America, developing the first national parks in Haiti and the Turks and Caicos ...
Mr Cyril KORMOS
Thematic Vice Chair, World Heritage and Primary Forests. Cyril is Founder and Executive Director of Wild Heritage, a project of the Earth Island Institute. He also serves as IUCN-WCPA Vice-Chair for ...
Dr Felipe PAREDES
Thematic Vice Chair, Marine. Felipe Paredes is a marine biologist from Chile, with more than 20 years of experience in scientific research, education and marine conservation public policy. He is ...
Ms Helen TUGENDHAT
Thematic Vice Chair, Governance, Equity and Rights. Helen Tugendhat coordinates the Environmental Governance programme at the Forest Peoples Programme, a human rights organization based in the United ...
Ms Karen KEENLEYSIDE
Thematic Vice Chair, People and Parks/Nature for All.
Email: karen.natureforall@gmail.com.
An ecologist by training, Karen has over thirty years’ professional experience in the environmental field ...
Mr Michael APPLETON
Thematic Vice Chair, Capacity Development. Mike’s work as a conservation practitioner focuses on applied, area-based conservation, working in more than 40 counties to help establish protected areas ...
Dr Nick SALAFSKY
Thematic Vice Chair, Conservation Outcomes. Dr. Nick Salafsky is the Executive Director of Foundations of Success, a non-profit organization that seeks to improve the practice of conservation.
Ms Paola MEJÍA
Thematic Vice Chair, Conservation Outcomes.
With more than 20 years of experience in Protected Areas and other area-based conservation measures in Latin America, Southeast Asia, and South Africa ...
Dr Stephen WOODLEY
Thematic Vice Chair, Science and Biodiversity Policy. Stephen Woodley is an ecologist, who has worked in the field of protected areas for 35 years. He worked as a consultant, a field biologist ...