Dr. Manoranjan Hota has 22 years of professional experience in the field of Environment Management, which includes research, monitoring, enforcement, policy planning, professional training etc. especially in the field of Biosafety, Environmental Assessment & Management. His areas of expertise include capacity building in aspects of environmental management He has been working in coordination with national stakeholders as well as with international agencies such as UNEP, UNEP-GEF Biosafety unit, World Bank, USAID etc. with respect to biosafety issues. He designs and organizes biosafety awareness & training programmes.

He has experience in working with programmes of bilateral agencies. NGOs, as well as, other administrative ministries of the Government of India etc. and involved in the promotion and implementation of environmental programmes in India. He was the Coordinator for the development and implementation of the WHO country programme in India for environmental health so also was the project coordinator for World Bank project on Pollution Control in India

He is the Project Coordinator for the GEF-World Bank Capacity Building Project on Biosafety in India. He has necessary trainings from the UNEP-GEF on the Biosafety Clearing House.

Holder of a PhD Degree in Agricultural Botany from Reading University in the UK, Elsa Sattout is a Middle Eastern expert working on biodiversity conservation and sustainable use and the Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety (CPB).

She has been serving as national project coordinator for the UNEP-GEF Development of National Biosafety Framework (NBF) for Lebanon for the past two years. She has been involved in the CPB and biosafety issues for almost 2 years and a half now. She has been closely involved also in the development of NBF project's implementation activities related to the Biosafety Clearing House, public participation and public awareness components.

Elsa Sattout has also an extensive experience in Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) implementation at national and regional level. She has been participating in CBD meetings and biodiversity related congresses. Her professional expertise during the past eight years was strictly channeled to serve the conservation and sustainable use of biodiversity at national and regional level, including amongst other activities building up platforms and community of practices for information exchange to support the implementation of National Biodiversity Strategies and Action Plans.

She speaks fluently Arabic, English and French. She can manage herself well in Spanish language.