Head, Environmental Policy, UNEP Nairobi
Dr. Balakrishna Pisupati is an internationally renowned conservation and development specialist with close to three decades of experience working at national, regional and international levels, holding positions such as the Chairperson of FLEDGE, an international think tank, Vice-Chancellor, TransDisciplinary University (TDU, India), Chief of Biodiversity, Land Law and Governance programmes at United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP, Kenya), Senior Policy Fellow at Fridtjof Nansen Institute (FNI, Norway), Chairman, National Biodiversity Authority-Government of India (NBA, India), Coordinator, Biodiplomacy Programme at United Nations University (UNU-IAS, Japan), Head, Regional Biodiversity Programme for Asia at the World Conservation Union (IUCN, Sri Lanka), Head, Biodiversity and Biotechnology programme at the M S Swaminathan Research Foundation (MSSRF, India).
He is currently is Head of UNEP’s Environment Policy, focusing on issues of science policy interfaces, policy coherence, international environmental governance and the related.
He is an invited Fellow of American Association of Advancement of Science, elected Fellow of Linnean Society London, invited member of Cambridge Commonwealth Society, Policy Fellow at Fridtjof Nansen Institute, Adjunct Fellow at Research Information Systems (RIS) – a think tank of Ministry of External Affairs, Government of India.
He has authored about 300 publications on topics including biodiversity conservation, development, biotechnology, law and governance.
UNEP Nairobi
Head, Environmental Policy