Balakrishna Pisupati

Dr. Balakrishna Pisupati is an internationally renowned conservation and development specialist with 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 the 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 Head of UNEP’s Environment Policy Unit, focusing on issues of science policy interfaces, policy coherence, international environmental governance and the related.

He has advised more than 50 countries on conservation and development policy and served as advisor to international bodies such as China Council for International Cooperation on Environment and Development, China, the Global Environment Facility (GEF), World Bank, United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and others. 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 around 300 publications on biodiversity conservation, development, biotechnology, law and governance, among other topics.