The LLF is hosting an event on financing biodiversity at the IUCN World Conservation Congress in Marseille on 6th September. Interesting and high-ranking representatives from diverse organizations discuss “Conservation Trust Funds as one way of safeguarding high biodiversity areas”.
Among them is Christine Laibach, Member of the Executive Board from KfW, Bertrand Wolckenaer, Associate CEO from AFD, Aileen Lee, Chief Program Officer from the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation, as well as Hailemariam Dessalegn, the former Prime Minister from Ethiopia.
Dessalegn will share his insights as a representative from the Global South and from a country which has an immense ecological value and a huge wealth of biodiversity due to its geographical position, range of altitude, rainfall patterns and soil variability. Dessalegn was Ethiopia´s Prime Minister between 2012 and 2018, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign affairs between 2010 and 2012 and prior to that held a whole range of public positions within the Ethiopian government. He also chaired the African Union at one point. A water engineer by academic training, he served in different academic and administrative capacities, including as the Dean of Ethiopia’s Water Technology Institute.
Since his resignation as Prime Minister in 2018, Dessalegn, has taken on different posts in international organizations and NGOs. He is presently chairing the Board of the “Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa” and repeatedly asked African countries to kick start an agricultural revolution on the continent. And Dessalegn holds the position of Vice Chair of Africa Parks Network, a non-profit conservation organization that takes on direct responsibility for the rehabilitation and long-term management of protected areas. It is particularly his experience as a national and regional decision-maker, politician, and conservation specialist, he brings into the LLF-event at the IUCN World Congress.
