Louise is an NUAcT Research Fellow at Newcastle University where her research focuses on reconciling species and ecosystem conservation needs to provide decision makers with the scientific understanding required to halt biodiversity loss. 

Together with research partners from the IUCN, she developed the  Species Threat Abatement and Restoration (STAR) metric. STAR quantifies the potential contribution of threat abatement and habitat restoration activities to reduce global species extinction risk and can support the implementation of the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework by allowing countries and other non-state actors, such as NGOs and businesses, to set and measure progress towards science-based targets for species conservation.

Louise’s background is in macro-ecological research, with a particular focus on the impacts of climate change and land use on species distributions. She completed her PhD at the University of York and has experience working as a post-doctoral researcher at the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences in Uppsala.

Ian obtained his Ph.D. in systematic ichthyology at the University of Bristol, UK. He has conducted research on marine and freshwater fishes from several parts of the world. He is currently the Freshwater Specialist for Conservation International’s Moore Center for Science.

He has served as the Technical Officer for the Freshwater Fish Specialist Group of IUCN’s Species Survival Commission (SSC), is part of the Steering Committee for SSC, and co-chair of the IUCN-SSC Freshwater Conservation Committee. He is Associate Director for the Free-Flowing Rivers Laboratory at Northern Arizona University. He is based in Flagstaff, Arizona.

Domitilla is the Threatened Species Unit Manager at the South African National Biodiversity Institute. She is responsible for the species assessments for South Africa’s National Biodiversity Assessment. Domitilla has extensive experience assessing the threat status for South Africa’s animal and plant species, is the lead author of the “Red List of South African Plants” (2009) and has co-ordinated the Red List assessments for many animal groups.

She is dedicated to ensuring that species information feeds into land-use decision making. Domitilla is also involved in species conservation work internationally and is the Deputy Chair of the International Union for the Conservation of Nature’s (IUCN) Species Survival Commission and serves on the IUCN’s Red List Committee.

David is a Special Advisor to the Species Survival Commission, a member of the IUCN Red List Scientific Committee, and the Green List Task Force and was a member of the IUCN SSC Species Conservation Planning Subcommittee (2010-2016).

He has been Co-Chair of the Antelope Specialist Group since 2004 and is a member of the Caprinae, Cat, Equid, and Sustainable Use Specialist Groups.

He is a Visiting Professor in the Department of Natural Sciences, Manchester Metropolitan University, a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society, Fellow of the Linnean Society , and an Honorary Conservation Fellow, Zoological Society of London.

Catherine is Principal Scientist for Health and Policy at EcoHealth Alliance, where she works closely with intergovernmental and governmental partners on research, policy, and operations focused on the intersection between human, animal and environmental health (“One Health”). 

A key focus of her work is researching and addressing the shared drivers of biodiversity loss, ecosystem degradation, and disease to find multi-sectoral and cost-effective solutions. Catherine is a member of the One Health High-Level Expert Panel advising the FAO, UNEP, WHO and WOAH, and also served as program officer for the IUCN SSC Wildlife Health Specialist Group for 10 years. She has a PhD in Environmental and Planetary Health Sciences.  

Caroline works for the IUCN SSC Conservation Planning Specialist Group (CPSG) as a conservation planning facilitator and wildlife population modeller. For over thirty years, CPSG has supported diverse groups of stakeholders to plan the conservation of threatened species. In 2016, at the request of the SSC Chair, CPSG took up the challenge of facilitating an increase in the SSC’s involvement in planning, with a focus on responding to the needs of governments as they work to conserve and protect their biodiversity.

Through the taskforce Caroline will help to maintain a connection between CPSG’s species planning advice, tool development and capacity building work, and the higher-level strategic advice being developed by the IUCN SSC to inform the CBD’s post-2020 agenda for global species conservation.

Braulio Ferreira de Souza Dias is Associate Professor at the University of Brasilia’s Department of Ecology. He has coordinated research on biogeography, fire ecology, insect ecology and conservation of the Brazilian Cerrado Biome, the largest savanna in the Americas and the richest savanna in the world.

Braulio has been strongly involved with the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) since its negotiations. He has been the Brazilian National Focal Point for both the Subsidiary Body for Scientific, Technical and Technological Advice (SBSTTA) and the Clearing-House Mechanism (CHM)of the CBD.

Alison is a Research Associate at Newcastle University, her research focuses on harms and crimes impacting wildlife and the environment, with a particular interest in restorative and ecological justice.

Recent projects have investigated the overlap between legal and illegal wildlife trade and corporate environmental crimes (see recent projects). 

She holds a PhD in green criminology from Northumbria University (UK) and has conducted research into wildlife trade and crime with a focus on fisheries crime, inter/national environmental and wildlife law, and wildlife forensics.