Rui Zhang acted as programme officer on South-South Cooperation within the Secretariat of the Convention on Biological Diversity (SCBD) until July 2011. Her responsibilities were to promote South-South and triangular cooperation as a cross-cutting approach and a key mechanism for the implementation of the Convention through enhanced information exchange, knowledge sharing and technology transfer. She has been the biodiversity focal point for the UN Environment-China Virtual Team, covering the issues on China's biodiversity related activities and international cooperation. In addition, her work also has a specialized focus on forest biodiversity.
Before joining the SCBD in July 2010, Rui had been working for five years at the United Nations Headquarters based in New York, for the secretariats of the Commission on Sustainable Development (CSD) and the United Nations Forum on Forests (UNFF) within the Department of Economic and Social Affairs (DESA). The scope of her work covers sustainable consumption and production (SCP), forests, new and renewable energy, energy statistics, and small island developing States (SIDS).
Prior to her UN career, Rui was an urban development specialist in Dalian, China. She contributed to the design of the first eco-industrial park in northeast China and participated in several China- EU cooperation projects on sustainable urban development.
Rui holds a master's degree in Sustainable Resource Management from Technische Universität Müenchen (TUM), Germany, as well as a bachelor's degree in Engineering (energy) and Project Management from Harbin Institute of Technology, China.
Rui's recent publication on biodiversity: "Forest Biodiversity - Earth's Living Treasure", for the International Day for Biological Diversity 2011.
