Preventing the next pandemic - Zoonotic diseases and how to break the chain of transmission

Doreen Robinson (Moderator), Chief of Wildlife, UN Environment Programme

Doreen, from the United States of America, is a conservation ecologist by training with over twenty-five years of experience. She is the Chief for Wildlife at UN Environment Programme based in Nairobi Kenya, where she is also a focal point for UNEP’s COVID response and green recovery efforts.  She oversees a global portfolio supporting biodiversity conservation. Prior to joining the UN team, Doreen served as the Regional Chief for Environment with the United States Agency for International Development in Pretoria, South Africa. She led programs on transboundary ecosystem management, combating wildlife crime, water supply and sanitation, water resource management, climate and energy in 14 countries. In Madagascar, she directed programs in biodiversity, agriculture, food security, rural development, and disaster response.  In Washington DC, Doreen led policy and program development for global biodiversity conservation, promoting collaborative solutions, good governance and participatory approaches to protected area conservation, natural resource management and benefit-sharing with local communities. Doreen worked for the World Wildlife Fund and other environmental organizations spanning a range of locations including the Amazon, Atlantic Rainforests of South America, the Alps in Europe, the Coral Triangle in Asia and the Congo Basin. She began her career working with rural communities in Morocco. She holds an MSc degree from the University of Maryland and a BSc from Cornell University.  

Dechen Tsering, Regional Director and Representative for Asia and the Pacific, UN Environment Programme

Ms. Dechen Tsering was appointed as the regional director of United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) in Asia and the Pacific in March 2017. As the regional arm of UNEP, headquartered in Nairobi, Kenya, the Asia-Pacific office works with governments, local authorities, and the private sector to develop and put into place cleaner and safer policies and strategies that encourage the efficient use of natural resources and reduce risks for humans and the environment.

Ms. Tsering has held management and leadership positions with the United Nations and has over 30 years of experience in national government and intergovernmental organisations. She has been actively involved in intergovernmental negotiations as a key negotiator for least-developed countries and contributed to the establishment of the Least Developed Countries Fund and the Least Developed Countries Expert Group. She also has experience in the management of complex development projects. She comes to UNEP from the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) secretariat, where she served as director of the Finance, Technology and Capacity-building Programme. In that position, she supported international co-operation on mobilisation of finance, technology development and transfer, and capacity building to enable countries to take enhanced action on climate change. Prior to that position, she was the deputy regional director of UNEP in Asia and the Pacific.

Ms. Tsering holds a PhD in forest economics and policy from the Federal Institute of Technology, Zurich. She also has a master’s degree from Georgetown University and undergraduate degrees from the University of California, Berkeley.

Susan Gardner, Director, Ecosystems Division, UNEP

Ms. Susan Gardner has over two decades of experience in science and environmental policy working for both the Mexican and United States governments.  She was a senior official in the United States National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration focused on fisheries science and ocean conservation.  Ms. Gardner’s multilateral work included the Strategic Approach to International Chemicals Management, the Global Mercury Partnership and the Stockholm Convention. She recently led the facilitation team of Nature-based Solutions track in the Secretary-General Climate Action Summit 2019. 

Sen Nathan, Assistant Director, Sabah Wildlife Department, Malaysia

Dr. Senthilvel K.S.S. Nathan (a.k.a. Sen Nathan) graduated from University Putra Malaysia with a Degree in Veterinary Medicine (D.V.M) in 1997. He joined the Sabah Wildlife Department (SWD) thereafter as the Manager and Veterinarian for the Sepilok Orangutan Rehabilitation Centre, Sandakan. Presently based in Kota Kinabalu, has recently been promoted as the SWD’s Assistant Director, he oversees SWD’s various conservation programs such as the Borneo Rhino Sanctuary, the Borneo Elephant Sanctuary, and the Sabah Wildlife Rescue Unit (WRU). He is also a member of the IUCN Asian Rhino Specialist Group. Dr. Nathan’s avid love for nature has brought him into the deep jungle of Sabah, successfully leading and coordinating numerous wildlife rescue and translocation operations over the years. In his key role for such activities, he works closely with SWD’s partners in conservation such as the Malaysian Palm Oil Council and the Sime Darby Foundation. He will be very soon heading the Orangutan and elephant survey project in Sabah for the next 24 months.

Delia Grace, International Livestock Research Institute/ILRI, Lead Author to the UNEP-ILRI report & Professor for Food Safety Systems, Natural Resources Institute, University of Greenwich

Delia Grace is an epidemiologist and veterinarian with more than 20 years’ experience in developing countries. She graduated from several leading universities and currently is a professor at the University of Greenwich and supports research on human and animal health at the International Livestock Research Institute based in Nairobi, Kenya. Her research interests include food safety, emerging diseases, gender studies, and animal welfare. Her career has spanned the private sector, field-level community development, and aid management, as well as research.  She has lived and worked in Asia, west, and east Africa and authored or co-authored more than 200 peer-reviewed publications as well as training courses, briefs, films, articles, chapters, and blog posts.  

Her research program focuses on the design and promotion of risk-based approaches to food safety in livestock products in sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia.  She is a professor for food safety at the Natural Resources Institute UK a key player on ILRI’s Ecohealth/ One health approach to the control of zoonotic emerging infectious diseases and agriculture-associated antimicrobial resistance.  

Johannes Refisch, Great Apes Survival Partnership/GRASP Programme Manager, Wildlife Unit, UNEP Ecosystems Division & Co-Author to the UNEP-ILRI report

Johannes leads the secretariat for the Great Apes Survival Partnership (GRASP), a unique alliance of member nations, research institutions, conservation organizations, United Nations agencies, and private supporters that is based at UNEP (United Nations Environment Programme) headquarters in Nairobi. 

Johannes has a Diploma degree in animal ecology and has held scientific positions in Germany, Switzerland, and the United States. He was co-director of the Tai Monkey Project in Cote d’Ivoire, and the results of his Ph.D. work in 2001 resulted in a Research Conservation Award from the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) and the Centre Suisse de Recherches Scientifiques. 

Johannes relocated to East Africa in 2005, and worked as a programme manager for the International Gorilla Conservation Programme (IGCP), then joined GRASP in 2006. He is a member of the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Primate Specialist Group and the IUCN Transboundary Conservation Specialist Group. He has a wide experience in natural resource management (NRM) and assisted GTZ (German Technical Cooperation), IGCP, WWF, and UNEP in designing, supervising, and implementing NRM projects. Johannes is an Honorary Senior Research Fellow at the Centre of Excellence for Environmental Decisions (CEED) at the University of Queensland, Australia. 

 Johannes has visited many great ape range states in Africa and Asia, and the GRASP great apes photo exhibition “Their Fate is Ours: the Humanity of Great Apes” features his pictures and tours around African great ape range states and European donor countries. 

Steve Unwin, European Veterinary Specialist in Zoo Health Management & IUCN Wildlife Health Specialist Group and Conservation Planning Specialist Group, & Orangutan Veterinary Advisory Group co-lead & Co-lead on the Nonhuman primate CoVID-19 Information Hub & Lecturer in Biosystems and Environmental Change, University of Birmingham

Steve graduated in 1993 with a science degree majoring in physiology and ecology and in 1997 with a veterinary science degree, both from Massey University in New Zealand. Between 1997 and 2003 he worked in several zoos, wildlife rehabilitation centres, and conservation projects in Australia, Thailand, and Cameroon, and at Chester Zoo in the UK until 2018. He’s a European specialist in Zoo Health Management as a Diplomate of the European College of Zoological Medicine. He was the veterinary coordinator for the Pan African Sanctuary Alliance veterinary programme to 2014 and co-founded and am currently co-facilitator for the Orangutan Veterinary Advisory Group (OVAG – https://www.ovag.org ). Both these organisations focus on and promote capacity building of local primates and wildlife veterinarians. From 2018 as a wildlife veterinary consultant with Wildlife Impact, IUCN, the Arcus Foundation, Dubai Safari, and others. Concurrently with his OVAG work, Steve is developing a global ape one health initiative with colleagues in Africa, USA, Europe, and SE Asia. In September 2019 he joined the University of Birmingham School of Biosciences as Lecturer in Biosystems and Environmental Change.

Colin Butler, UNEP Asia and the Pacific Office & Honorary Professor, Australian National University

Colin Butler is an Honorary Professor of Public Health at the Australian National University, in Canberra, Australia. His qualifications include medicine, epidemiology, and public health. For more than 20 years his academic work has primarily focused on ecological and other environmental determinants of global health. He has contributed to almost 300 scientific articles, chapters, letters, and reports, including for the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment (“Ecosystems and Human Well-Being”), and the 5th Assessment of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. Colin also edited the book “Climate Change and Global Health” (CABI, 2014) and is now working on the second edition.