The Scientific and Technical Expert Panel (STEP)

Dr. Jo Maloney is the Founder and CEO of Climate LinkUP and the QUIN Institute for Sustainable Executive Education. She is recognised for her contributions as a European Commission Marie Sklodowska-Curie Postdoctoral Fellow and a Fellow of the Royal Society of London. With over 30 years of international experience in environmental leadership, Jo has held senior positions in scientific research and development, sustainable policy development, management, and academia. In 2020-2021, she authored the Welsh Government's Strategic Environmental Assessment for Flood Risk and Coastal Erosion and the Marine Resilience Evidence Report for Wales:https://edgeecosystem.com/project-details/uk-published-marine-climate-report/Jo began her academic journey at the University of Wales, Aberystwyth, with a degree in Zoology with Geology, followed by a PhD in Marine Science. Her expertise spans marine pollution, environmental forensics, and the impacts of human-induced stressors—such as climate change and contaminants—on biodiversity and ecosystems. Throughout her international career, which has included work in Norway, Australia, and the UK, Jo has focused on assessing the transport, fate, and ecological effects of both natural and human disturbances on coastal and deep-sea ecosystems. She has led numerous European Commission-funded projects and has published her research in leading scientific journals. As a university lecturer in Australia, she developed and taught pioneering courses in environmental forensics and statistics, earning recognition for her teaching excellence: Press release: https://edgeecosystem.com/project-details/article-top-lecturer-dr-jo-maloneysandnes/ .With extensive expertise in marine science, biodiversity, and climate change, as well as experience in graphic design and creative storytelling, Jo is dedicated to bridging the gap between science, education, and industry. She drives global climate and sustainability initiatives that aim to safeguard the natural environment and advance net-zero goals. Jo’s strategic vision and innovative approach have established her as a respected leader in the pursuit of a more sustainable future.

Professor Rick Stafford is an interdisciplinary scientist working in marine conservation, ecosystem functioning, law and policy and politics. He has worked at Bournemouth University for 11 years, with previous experience at other UK universities, universities in Hong Kong and Ecuador and within government and government agencies (Cefas, and a recent secondment to Defra). Rick holds a PhD in Marine Ecology and Computer Simulation, mainly on rocky shores in temperate and tropical regions. While he still works on these systems, especially the effects of anthropogenic changes on community structure and ecological regime shifts, his main research now focusses on artificial marine structures and on the role of marine fauna in nutrient cycles - especially the carbon cycle and implications for climate change.Rick is actively involved in environmental policy, and is the chair of the policy committee for the British Ecological Society, recently having been the lead editor of the report on Nature-based Solutions for Climate Change, and lead author of the marine and coastal chapter of the report, currently examining the role of UK protected areas in meeting the 30 x 30 targets. Rick was also a member of the nature-based solutions team for the 2021 Universities COP Network and an expert witness for the recent House of Lords inquiry into Nature-based Solutions.Rick is interested in the political and economic solutions to climate change, and has developed predictive models to evaluate different solutions, combining natural sciences, social sciences and socio-economic aspects. The good news from this research is, while there is a huge challenge to address the risks of climate change, the solutions which work best will also have a positive effect on the majority of society, both in the UK and around the world. We now need to political will to make these changes.

Cambridge Zoology graduate, Professor Adam Hart is an award-winning scientist who was given the title of Science Communicator of the Year in 2010 by the Royal Society of Biology. Adam is Professor of Science Communication at the University of Gloucestershire, and a Fellow of the Royal Entomological Society. He has a broad research portfolio that includes insect science, African ecology, citizen science, and conservation. His teaching includes ecology, field work, behaviour and diversity, emphasising the importance of making connections between nature and the changing environment.An author and frequent broadcaster, Adam has presented documentaries for BBC Radio 4 and World Service and is a frequent commentator on science and environmental matters. He co-presented the BBC4/Discovery USA documentary ‘Planet Ant: Life Inside the Colony’, the BBC Learning spin-off programme for children ‘Life on Planet Ant’ and the BB2 series Hive Alive. He has presented nearly 40 documentaries for Radio 4 and the BBC World Service including ‘The Tree Scientists’, on ash dieback disease and ‘On the Trail of the American Honeybee’, which saw him travel to California to witness the largest pollination event on Earth. In 2018 he wrote and presented Inside the ‘Killing Jar’ about the ethics of insect science and is the writer and presenter of the BBC World Service series Tooth and Claw interviewing people who live and work with predators, now in its second series.As an author, Adam has co-authored two textbooks, on forensic science and applied ecology. Adam has also written two popular science books, 2015’s Life of Poo about our complex relationships with bacteria and 2020’s ‘Unfit for Purpose: When Human Evolution Collides with the Modern World’. This book sees Adam unearth the evolutionary causes of our current woes, along with evolutionary-informed treatments that will change the way we think about ourselves and our future. His latest book, Eaten, will be published in 2022 and explores how can we live with predators and what the future holds for their conservation. https://dml-uk.com/our-clients/adam-hart/ https://www.glos.ac.uk/staff/profile/adam-hart/ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adam_Hart

Dr Kathy Hodder is a conservation ecologist with over 30 years of experience in research, practical conservation, and education. After graduating from Aberystwyth University, Kathy began her career in the early 1990s working with Mauritian wildlife in the NGO sector. She then returned to the UK, embarking on a 13-year research career with the Centre for Ecology and Hydrology. In 2007, Kathy joined Bournemouth University, where she most recently served as Head of the Department of Life and Environmental Sciences. She now continues her work as a Visiting Fellow: https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Kathy-Hodder

Professor Dr Paul Shand is a hydrogeochemist with extensive experience in sustainability issues related to soil and water quality management. He has led major research programs using science to underpin environmental policy.Paul has particular interests in the application of isotope techniques to understand catchment functioning, the impacts of climate change on wetlands, and the sustainability of deep groundwater systems. Professor Shand was formerly a Principal Research Scientist with the British Geological Survey, before taking up a research position with the CSIRO in Australia focussing on environmental contaminants, groundwater sustainability issues and regolith science. He has worked closely with government agencies in implementing management strategies to minimise soil and water impacts of climate change and variability on wetland ecosystems.In 2021 Paul Shand left the academic world to follow a life-long dream to apply his scientific geochemical knowledge to establish a boutique, sustainable nano-distillery, and has successfully started to craft award-winning whisky in Australia.

Bruno Merz is Head of the Section Hydrology at GFZ German Research Centre for Geosciences and Professor for Engineering Hydrology and Management of Georisks at the University of Potsdam. His main research interests are flood risk assessment and climate adaptation, integrating hazard and vulnerability aspects. He has also published on related topics, such as detection and attribution of hydrological change, monitoring and simulation of hydrological and hydraulic processes, or linkages between hydrological extremes and climate change and climate variability.Bruno has coordinated several large-scale research projects on natural hazards and water security, such as the European Doctoral Training Network ‘System-Risk’, the ‘German Research Network for Natural Hazards’ or the CAWA project ‘Water in Central Asia’. He has supervised more than 25 PhD students and has acted as external reviewer for more than 20 doctoral theses. He is one of the editors of the international scientific journal Water Security.In recognition of his research achievements, he was awarded the Plinius Medal of the European Geophysical Union (EGU) and the Volker Medal of the International Association of Hydrological Sciences (IAHS), and he was selected as a Fellow of the American Geophysical Union (AGU). He has pioneered the integration of flood hazard and vulnerability research by bringing together approaches from natural sciences, engineering and social sciences. Under his leadership, the GFZ-section Hydrology has developed models that help to better understand extreme events, improve risk assessments and develop risk reduction strategies at the local, regional and continental scale. https://www.gfz-potsdam.de/en/staff/bruno-merz/

Professor Steve Widdicombe is the Director of Science and Deputy Chief Executive of Plymouth Marine Laboratory, UK. Steve is a marine ecologist with over 30 years of experience in using field observations and large manipulative experiments to address issues relating to marine ecology, climate change, biodiversity and ecosystem function. He has been instrumental in developing the understanding of the effects of ocean acidification on the marine environment, is Co-Chair of the Global Ocean Acidification Observing Network (GOA-ON) Executive Council and helped to establish its North East Atlantic Hub. The GOA-ON is a collaborative international network with around 1,000 scientists from more than 100 countries, to detect and understand the drivers and impacts of ocean acidification. The network is fundamental to providing early warning of the impacts of ocean acidification on natural ecosystems, wild and aquaculture fisheries, coastal protection, tourism and local economies. Steve represented the GOA-ON on OSPAR’s Intersessional Correspondence Group on ocean acidification and was an author of the ocean acidification chapter in the 2023 Quality Status Report (Ocean Acidification (ospar.org)). He co-leads the UN Ocean Decade endorsed programme ‘Ocean Acidification Research for Sustainability’ (GOA-ON : OARS), which aims to provide society with the observational and scientific evidence needed to sustainably identify, monitor, mitigate and adapt to ocean acidification; from local to global scales. Steve regularly contributes to high level policy discussions such as at the UN Climate Change meetings the UNFCCC COPs, as moderator of a 2022 UN Ocean Conference Dialogue; through Co-Chairing a previous CBD international expert group meeting and presenting at the CBD COP15. Steve is currently a member of the UN Convention for Biological Diversity (CBD) ad-hoc Technical Expert Group on Indicators for the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework, the UN Ocean Decade Conference (2024) Programme Committee and the UN 3rd World Ocean Assessment Pool of Experts.

Martin Atkins is a Senior Lecturer in Chemical and Process Engineering at the School of Engineering and an associate director of the Ahuora Centre for Smart Energy Systems based at the University of Waikato, New Zealand. He has expertise in energy systems engineering with a particular focus on developing and using Process Integration methodologies for optimising industrial energy systems and emissions reduction. He has collaborated in several large research programmes examining energy and emissions reduction potential and how energy systems analysis can be used to reduce energy consumption and increase the amount of renewable energy used. As a result of these programmes he has developed close linkages with large industrial energy users, particularly in the dairy, pulp and paper sectors. Martin has been on several government and industry expert panels providing advice with regards to energy efficiency, emissions reduction planning and energy systems development. https://www.waikato.ac.nz/staff-profiles/people/matkins

Michael Walmsley is a Professor of Chemical and Process Engineering at the School of Engineering, and director of the Ahuora Centre for Smart Energy Systems based at the University of Waikato, Hamilton, New Zealand. He has over 37 years of research experience in a variety of chemical engineering fields including energy systems engineering, Process Integration (PI), renewable energy sector planning, sustainable energy and industrial energy efficiency. The PI and energy systems related research has pioneered the development of Pinch Analysis (PA) methodologies for using heat recovery loops in semi-continuous processes found in dairy, food, and pulp and paper industries, and for automated heat exchanger network retrofit design. PA methods have also been extended to analyse the trade-off between carbon emissions and energy footprint in renewable energy systems at the industrial site and at regional/national energy system level.

Professor Alan MacDonald leads the Groundwater Resilience team at the British Geological Survey and is an Honorary Professor at the University of Dundee. His main areas of research are water security, particularly with a focus on the impacts of climate change, and the resilience of groundwater systems to environmental change. Much of his work is in Africa and South Asia, and he has worked in 20 countries over the past 30 years. He has published several books on groundwater, and >100 papers, several of them quoted in the recent IPCC assessment. Alan recently led two influential studies for FCDO on the resilience of groundwater to climate change in Africa and South Asia, providing evidence for how groundwater can help increase people’s resilience to future change. Much of his research has an applied focus, working directly with NGOs, government departments and regulators to support policy and improve practice. In the UK, Prof MacDonald is the chief BGS hydrogeologist for Scotland providing advice to SEPA and the Scottish Government and leads a growing research area on the role of subsurface flow in flooding. https://www.bgs.ac.uk/people/macdonald-alan/

Rob Marchant is Professor in environmental change at the University of York. His main interest is researching processes of environmental change and how these are registered by tropical vegetation, how this may respond in a future of uncertain change and how we can use such information to guide appropriate policy development. Rob’s research covers the fields of environmental change, biogeography, ecology, palaeoecology, and ecosystem modelling. Combining these disciplines he develops an understanding, at an ecologically sensible timeframe, of the events that have shaped the past, present and future composition, and distribution of tropical ecosystems. In addition to understanding past ecosystem transitions, much of his work is focused on applying this knowledge on ecosystem dynamics to contemporary challenges around climate change, development, and social economic change. By using insights from the past, we can manage the future better and achieve the various sustainable development agendas - internationally, nationally and locally.Rob co-ordinates the York Institute for Tropical Ecosystem (KITE); a research group that explores the relationship between ecosystem dynamics, climate change, and human impacts, particularly in Eastern Africa. He is a member of the Scientific Leadership Council for the Mountain Research Initiative (https://www.mountainresearchinitiative.org/ ) - a multidisciplinary scientific organisation that addresses global change issues in mountain regions around the world. Rob works closely with organisations across developing nations, foremost are the National Museums of Kenya, the Africa Conservation Centre, WWF-Tanzania, UNEP World Conservation Monitoring Centre and the Universities of Nairobi, Dar es Salaam, Nelson Mandela (Arusha), Sokoine and Ghana at Legon. Through these collaborative research partnerships, he supports sustainable development through evidence-base for innovations and impacts, supporting Africa’s development agenda, as outlined in the African Union’s Agenda 2063, and the UN Sustainable Development Goals. https://www.york.ac.uk/environment/our-staff/rob-marchant/

Kevin Li is the Researcher at CarbonCare InnoLab, an environmental NGO based in Hong Kong. He has nearly 25 years' work experience with development and environmental non-governmental organisations, including Greenpeace, International Rivers, Oxfam and Heinrich-Böll-Stiftung covering the issues of water, land, climate change and poverty reduction. He also has extensive experience across different roles, ranging from research, programme management, grant-making, online communications to working with partner organisations on development projects in the Asia region.Kevin currently leads the policy research component under the Paris Watch project, which tracks the annual performance of Hong Kong and other major Asian cities against the cities' climate pledges and the Paris Agreement goals. He also serves as a commentator on climate change and renewable energy policies in Hong Kong and other Asian countries. He has a Master of Arts (Asian Studies) and a Bachelor of Science (Chemistry major) from the University of Hong Kong.https://www.linkedin.com/in/kevinysli/

Prof. Felister M. Mombo is a Natural resource & environmental economist employed by Soikoine University of Agriculture in the Department of Forest and Environmental Economics. Her Phd topic was on, A new institutional economics approach to evaluate management options for wetlands: the case of Kilombero valley wetlands in Tanzania. She has worked in the field of Natural resources and environmental economics and allied sciences for more than 20 years under various capacities. Prof. Mombo has participated in a number of researches and consultancies both at national and international capacities in collaborations with USAID-CDM Smith, Norwegian Programme for Development, Research and Education (NUFU)-Royal Norwegian Government, International Institute for Environment and Development (IIED)-UK, Critical Ecosystems Partnership Fund (CEPF) and Fauna and Flora International (FFI), World Bank, Norwegian Agency for Development Cooperation (NORAD)/Noragric, Belgium Technical Cooperation (BTC, now know as ANEBEl) and NASA/University of Michigan. She has more than 60 research works’ publications cited in national and international peer reviewed journals in the field of economics and business, social, and earth sciences.

Dr Pete Walton works at the Environmental Change Institute, University of Oxford researching and supporting stakeholder engagement with climate change adaptation science, with a particular focus on the emerging science of extreme weather event attribution. This follows the completion of his doctoral thesis examining how climate science can be more successfully communicated to the public using online technologies. Pete is a qualified teacher with nearly thirty years’ experience teaching at both school and university level. His research provides him with an opportunity to link his background as an environmental geographer with his interest in the role of technologies as tools for engagement. https://www.eci.ox.ac.uk/people/pwalton.html

Espen Ronneberg is a Senior Adviser, Climate Change Multilateral Agreements at the Climate Change and Environmental Sustainability Programme at South Pacific Community (SPC). Espen brings a combination of proven expertise in climate change, sustainable development, as well as in-depth knowledge and understanding of the Pacific region, acquired through an extensive career focused on supporting Pacific Island Countries' and Territories' capacity and initiatives.Espen has 30 years of experience working on sustainable development and climate change issues in the Pacific, and has also worked in the Atlantic, Caribbean, and Indian Ocean small island states. He began his career in 1992 working for the government of the Republic of the Marshall Islands focusing on multilateral negotiations, project development and fund raising. https://www.spc.int/cces/team

Professor Saleemul Huq is the Director of the International Centre for Climate Change and Development (ICCCAD) and Professor at the Independent University Bangladesh (IUB) as well as Associate of the International Institute on Environment and Development (IIED) in the United Kingdom. He has been appointed an OBE in the 2022 New Year Honours for services to combating international climate change.Saleemul is the Chair of the Expert Advisory Group for the Climate Vulnerable Forum (CVF) and also Senior Adviser on Locally Led Adaptation with Global Centre on Adaptation (GCA) headquartered in the Netherlands. He is an expert in adaptation to climate change in the most vulnerable developing countries and has been a lead author of the third, fourth and fifth assessment reports of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) and he also advises the Least Developed Countries (LDC) group in the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). In addition, he is affiliated with the UN Food System Summit for 2021 as co-chair of the Action Track 5 on Building Resilience to Vulnerabilities, Shocks & Stress. He has published hundreds of scientific as well as popular articles and was recognised as one of the top twenty global influencers on climate change policy in 2019 and top scientist from Bangladesh on climate change science.Saleemul has been the recipient of international and national awards including: Robert McNamara Fellowship from World Bank, Washington DC, USA, 1986 87; Duggan Fellowship from NRDC, Washington DC, USA, 1989; Nobel Peace Prize – Prof. Saleemul Huq contributed to the reports of the IPCC which was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2007; Burtoni Award for his contribution to capacity building in climate change negotiation of the developing countries, 2007; The National Environment Award-2020 in the environmental education and publicity category- Announcement made virtually by Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change, Bangladesh https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saleemul_Huq https://www.iied.org/users/saleemul-huq

Samantha Atukunda Kakuru Mwesigwa is the Director and Legal Counsel Greenwatch, she is a practicing Lawyer with experience in climate litigation in Uganda. She is a member of the Environmental Law Alliance Network of public interest lawyers from around the world. Samantha is also a part-time lecturer of Environmental Law and Policy at Uganda Christian University. Samantha is a practicing advocate with Kakuru and Co. Advocates and a member of the Uganda Law Society, the East African Law Society and the Environmental Law Alliance Worldwide. Committed to implementing climate litigation as a strategic tool to address climate rights, Samantha has authored key publications on rights-based litigation strategies to secure environmental rights and the rights of Nature, is a Founding Fellow for Women for Environment in Africa and has worked with the Centre for Environmental Rights in Cape Town South Africa.

Raul Alfaro-Pelico is the senior director of RMI’s Energy Transition Academy within the Global South Program. Raul leads RMI’s capacity development efforts to secure a net-zero future for all. The Academy supports senior- and mid-level energy practitioners in utilities, renewable and distributed energy companies, and regulatory bodies enabling the clean energy transition.Raul holds: BA, Business Administration, London Metropolitan University and Universidad Carlos III de Madrid, MSc, Economics, University of London’s School of Oriental and African Studies and PhD, Engineering, Lancaster University (United Kingdom).Raul brings over 20 years of sustainability leadership accelerating the net-zero transition, catalyzing investment for impact, and managing environmental, social, & governance (ESG) risks to deliver on the returns behind the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). His track-record includes managerial, analytical, and technical roles at multilateral institutions (World Bank, United Nations, International Finance Corporation, and Inter-American Development Bank); multinational organizations (Exxon Mobil Corporation, Noble Energy, Glencore, and Acciona); and, multidisciplinary research and academia (The Economist Intelligence Unit, Arcadia, and Drexel Universities).Raul advises national delegations to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) as a member of the African Group of Negotiators Expert Support network. His support includes the climate negotiations at the 26th Conference of the Parties (COP26) November 2021 Conference in Glasgow, the UNFCCC Bonn May–June 2021 sessions, the Chile COP-25 December 2019 Conference in Madrid, and pre-COP15 November 2009 Conference in Barcelona, Spain. He is a private sector observer to the Climate Investment Funds Global Climate Action Program, and Just Transition Initiative.

Jan Szolgay is Professor of Hydrology and Water Resources Management at the Department of Land & Water Resources Management, the Slovak University of Technology in Bratislava. His research experience includes catchment modelling, the stochastic modelling of river flows, assessment of impacts of human influence and climate change on hydrological regimes and water resources management, modelling of water resources systems, and regional flood frequency analysis. In his approaches, he prefers a balance between building on a process basis and engineering principles. As a Regional Expert and Lead Author of the 3rd IPCC Assessment Report, he co-authored the chapter on Europe. He was active in shaping the Hydrology Division of the European Geophysical Union. He has been a member of the editorial boards of several international and regional hydrology journals. As a scientific advisor of the Slovak Ministry of Environment and Hungarian Government, he consults local water resources management concepts.Jan’s educational and research achievements have been honoured by numerous awards. He became Honorary Professor of the Szechenyi Istvan University Hungary in 1999 and Honorary Member of the Hungarian Hydrological Society in 2000. He received the Oto Dub Medal of the SUT in 2003, became Professor of the year at SUT in 2007, Scientist of the year at the SUT in 2008, was awarded the Henry Darcy Medal by the European Geophysical Union in 2011, the Dionyz Stur Medal of the Slovak Academy of Sciences in 2013 and the Ludo Molnar Medal of the Slovak Committee for the International Hydrological Program of UNESCO in 2013, Volker medal by the International Association of the Hydrological Sciences in 2019. https://worldscienceforum.org/participants/szolgay-jan-34473

Vanda Faasoa-Chan Ting, a Samoan national, is the Pacific NDC Hub Technical Adviser. She currently leads SPREP’s work on the Pacific NDC Hub to address identified needs and priorities of Pacific Island Countries to enhance and successfully implement their NDCs. In addition, she will assist in the further development of the Pacific NDC Hub for its third phase, including financing agreements, work plans and regional training and workshops.Vanda has a Master of Science (Renewable Energy) from Murdoch University, Australia and a Bachelor of Science and Bachelor of Teaching, University of Newcastle, Australia. She has more than 10 years’ experience in mitigation needs assessment and methodologies and joined SPREP from Samoa’s Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment where she has been the Assistant Chief Executive Officer, Renewable Energy for more than six years.

Professor AbuBakr S Bahaj, leads the 50-strong Energy & Climate Change Division and the Sustainable Energy Research Group (ECCD, www.energy.soton.ac.uk) at the University of Southampton, where he completed his PhD, progressing from a researcher to a Personal Chair in Sustainable Energy. For more than 30 years, Professor Bahaj has pioneered sustainable energy research and established the energy theme within the University. His major research programmes include Renewable Energy, Energy Access, Cities & Infrastructure, Buildings & Communities, and Behaviour & Modelling – details are within the ECCD research portfolio booklet. Professor Bahaj’s work has an h-index of 50 and resulted in over 330 articles, published in academic refereed journals and conference series of international standing. In 2013, he founded the International Journal of Marine Energy (IJOME) followed in 2018 by the International Marine Energy Journal (IMEJ) for which he was/is the Editor-in-Chief. Prof Bahaj also holds visiting professorships at the Xi’an University of Architecture and Technology (XAUAT), Xi’an, China, (2017 – ), the Ångström Laboratory and Engineering University of Uppsala, Sweden (2011-15) and holds King Salaman bin Abdulaziz Visiting Chair for Energy Research, at King Abdulaziz University (KAU), Jeddah, Saudi Arabia (2014 – ). He is a Fellow of the Institution of Civil Engineers (FICE), Institution of Engineering Technologies (FIET) and the Royal Academy of Arts (FRSA). In 2012, Prof Bahaj was appointed Chief Scientific Advisor to Southampton City Council—believed to be the first such appointment in the UK. In 2014, he was named by the UK’s Science Council as one of the UK’s 100 leading practising scientists. https://www.southampton.ac.uk/engineering/about/staff/bahaj.page

Rupeni Mario has two decades of environment and climate change related work experience across the Pacific (that is in 22 Pacific Island countries). He is currently based in Samoa at the Secretariat of the Pacific Regional Environment Programme (SPREP) as a Specialist assisting member countries access climate finance to progress their respective climate ambitions.With a degree in Mathematics and Physics, and certificates in Project Management and Development, Strategic Management, Planning and Leadership, and Electrical and Mechanical Engineering, Rupeni has worked in intergovernmental organisations on sustainable development, policy, renewable energy, energy efficiency, climate change, capacity building, and programme-project management and development across the Pacific region.

Mr. John Sebit BENANSIO is the Acting Head, Department of Fisheries Science, College of Natural Resources and Environmental Studies University of Juba, South Sudan. He obtained Bachelor of Science in Fisheries Science from Upper Nile University in 2006. He is trained in Environmental Science and obtained his M.Sc International Studies in Aquatic Tropical Ecology [ISATEC] at University of Bremen, Germany 2010 – 2012.Since 2019, John Benansio has carried out preliminary studies on the implications of climate change on the fisher-folks communities in the Sudd Wetlands, South Sudan. His research program focuses on climate change, livelihoods and adaptive capacity of the fishing communities of Sudd Wetlands, South Sudan; climate change and gender related dynamic in the fishing communities of Sudd Wetlands.John is a member and peer reviewer at numerous journals including ACTA OECOLOGICA from 2018 – present; the Zoological Society of London’s EDGE of the Existence Fellowship Programme from 2019 - present; International Journal for Sustainability and Development from 2017 - present; academic Journals from 2015 – present.  Mr. BENANSIO is also a member at Western Indian Ocean Marine Science Association (WIOSMA) from 2010 - present. He participated in several regional and international scientific symposiums and seminars. Mr. BENANSIO is the author and co-author of numerous articles and scientific papers.  Articles in Peer – Reviewed Journals (ORCID: 0000-0002-6926-8561).