Program

16:30 Arrival
16:45-17:45  Lecture by Brigitte Baptiste
17:45-19:00  Nibbles and mingle 

Registration

Cost: Free with registration. 
Please register by 17:00 Wednesday 24th April. You can register to attend in person or via Zoom on the link below:

Registration for GGBC Annual Biodiversity Lecture (office.com)

Brigitte Baptiste: a short biography

Brigitte Baptiste, is a Colombian cultural landscape ecologist and a world reknowned expert on environmental issues and biodiversity in Colombia, She is the Chancellor of Universidad Ean, Bogota, often referred to as the "University of the Entrepreneurs", which has a strong focus on sustainability, promoting "sustainable entrepreneurship" and endorsing the goals of the UNESCO Sustainable Development programme. As Chancellor, Baptiste represented Colombia's scientific authority to the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) and Subsidiary Body of Scientific, Technical and Technological Advice (SBSTTA). 

Amongst her many roles, she is a member of the Multidisciplinary Expert Panel of IPBES (Intergovernmental Science and Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services) and was a member of its Global Panel of 25 experts (MEP) on behalf of Latin America and the Caribbean (2015–2017). She co-chairs working groups on Indigenous and Local Knowledge, as well as on Policy Tools and Methodologies. 

Brigitte has undertaken several senior roles, including her 10-year stint as Director of the Alexander von Humboldt Institute where she championed sustainability and conservation, coordinating the ‘Program for Biodiversity Use and Valuation’,  Her research has focused on fishing in the Amazon, and forest management by rural communities and her career has seen her win a Fulbright Scholarship. She now brings her incredible experience and expertise together to advocate for understanding how people value and view nature through an interdisciplinary approach.

She partners her academic career with work in, and for, nonprofit organisations and as a student, she co-founded the environmental nonprofit Corporación Grupo Ecológico GEA, where she would later serve as the director. She was a prominent voice advocating for a peace deal in the  Colombian Civil War. She also finds time to write a column in the economic newspaper La República.