Maria Julia Oliva is the Head of Policy at UN Environment Programme World Conservation Monitoring Centre (UNEP-WCMC) where she oversees a team focused on accounting for the value for biodiversity in policy and providing support to incorporate biodiversity management into policy across many sectors. Previously, she was part of the UEBT staff team from 2009 to 2021 and last served as Deputy Director and Senior Coordinator for ABS and Policy. She is a trained lawyer with internationally recognized expertise on legal and policy issues linked to biodiversity. 

Jennifer Tauli Corpuz is from the Kankana-ey Igorot People of Mountain Province in the Philippines. She is a lawyer by profession and currently the Global Policy and Advocacy Lead for Nia Tero, a US-based non-profit working in solidarity with Indigenous peoples and movements worldwide. Jennifer participates in the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) related negotiations on the protection of traditional knowledge and was involved in the negotiations leading to the adoption of the Nagoya Protocol on Access and Benefit-Sharing.

Dr. Amber Hartman Scholz is the deputy to the director and head of the science policy group at the German Collection of Microorganisms and Cell Cultures, at Leibniz Institute, in Brunswick. She holds a PhD in microbiology from Johns Hopkins University and has a passion for the interface between policy and science. Amber has worked in the California State Senate, US National Cancer Institute, and served as the Executive Director for US President Obama’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology (PCAST) at the White House.

Global biodiversity advisor and proud Namibian Pierre du Plessis shares with us the three most important questions about the global biodiversity crisis that we must address in our lifetime.

Pierre du Plessis is a technical advisor to the African Group of Negotiators on Biodiversity. Pierre has worked on various aspects of sustainable development since 1987. Over the last 20 years he has developed a specialist focus on access to genetic resources and the fair and equitable sharing of benefits arising from their utilisation. He was one of Africa’s lead negotiators during the development of the Nagoya Protocol and has frequently represented Namibia and Africa at the CBD, WIPO and FAO.