His Excellency Mr Glen Lindholm has been Ambassador of Finland to Australia since 2005. Previously he was Ambassador to India, also accredited to Bangladesh, Bhutan, Nepal & Sri Lanka. He served as Director General, Department for International Development Cooperation, Ministry for Foreign Affairs from 1998 to 2001; and before that was Ambassador to Kenya, Ethiopia, Uganda and the Seychelles. From 1989 to 1995 he was Head of Division, Africa, Middle East and Asia, Department for International Development Cooperation, Ministry for Foreign Affairs. After joining the Finnish Ministry for Foreign Affairs in 1976, he had postings in Zambia, Tanzania and Sri Lanka, having begum his career in banking, and as Secretary General of Save the Children, Finland.

Donald R Rothwell is Professor of International Law at the College of Law, Australian National University. Previously he was Challis Professor of International Law and Director of the Sydney Centre for International and Global Law, University of Sydney. His major research interest is international law, with a specific focus on international law and the uase of armed force, law of the sea, law of the polar regions, and implementation of international law within Australia. He is a regular commentator on international law issues in the print and electronic media. He has taught a range of courses including Constitutional Law, Law of the Sea, International Environmental Law, International Law and Use of Armed Force, and Public International Law. Major publications amongst 11 books and over 100 book chapters and articles include The Polar Regions and the Development of International Law (CUP, 1996), and International Environmental Law in the Asia Pacific (Kluwer, 1998) coauthored with Ben Boer and Ross Ramsay. His most recent book is Towards Principled Oceans Governance: Australian and Canadian Experiences and Challenges (2006) co-edited with David VanderZwaag. He is presently working on projects assessing globalisation and health law, the law of the sea and maritime security, and the rights of Australian citizens when detained by foreign governments. Professor Rothwell is the immediate part-President of the Australian New Zealand Society of International Law (ANZSIL), and current Co-Chair of the Australian Canadian Oceans Research Network (ACORN).

Dr Lorraine Elliott holds a Senior Fellowship in the Department of International Relations at the Australian National University. She has also held appointment as Reader in International Relations at the University of Warwick, with visiting appointments at Balliol College, University of Oxford; the Asia Research Centre at the London School of Economics; and the Norman Paterson School of International Affairs at Carleton University in Ottawa. She has had research grants from the Australian Research Council, the Canadian government, the United States Institute of Peace and the International Centre for Excellence in Asia Pacific Studies. Dr Elliott has been a member of international review panels for the Academy of Finland, the Research Council of Norway, and the Global Environmental Change project of the International Human Dimensions Programme. She is a past member of the Research Council of the Australian Institute of International Affairs and a present member of the Australian national committee of the Council for Security Cooperation Asia Pacific. She is the author of more than 50 articles and book chapters in the field of global environmental governance, environmental security, and Asia Pacific security. Her most recent book is The global politics of the environment ( London : Palgrave Macmillan/ New York : New York University Press, 2004). She is presently completing a book on regional environmental governance in Southeast Asia and starting a new research project on transnational environmental crime and illegal resource activity.

Associate Professor Donna Craig  B.A., LL.B ( Univ. of NSW )  LL.M (Osgoode Hall, York Univ. Canada) 

Donna is Associate Director of the Centre for Environmental Law and a senior academic in the Division of Law at Macquarie University. At the Centre for Environmental Law, she is Director of their Environmental Law and Indigenous Rights Program. Donna has over 20 years experience teaching environmental law at University and in training courses in the non-government, government and corporate sector. She has combined practice with her teaching as well as taking periods of leave to undertake full-time legal practice and consultancy. Donna has undertaken some of the earliest Australian research and practice in the areas of international environmental law, indigenous rights and environmental law and social and cultural impact assessment.

Qualified and admitted as a Barrister of the Supreme Court of New South Wales from 1977-1991. Admitted as a Solicitor of the Supreme Court of New South Wales in 1991; Environmental Consultant, 1980-1983 (Dames and Moore, Planning Workshop); Head of Australian environmental law practice, Baker & McKenzie, 1991-1993. In late 1993 formed a specialist environmental law practice with Karen Ehrlich (Craig & Ehrlich) which continued until the death of Karen Ehrlich in 1996. Assisted in developing and teaching a four-year capacity building project for environmental legal education in the Asia/Pacific region.

The Secretary-General of the United Nations appointed Mr Kakakhel Deputy Executive Director of UNEP in 1998, at the level of Assistant Secretary-General. In this position, Mr. Kakakhel assists the Executive Director in the execution of all his tasks and duties in relation to the running of UNEP. This entails providing advice and assistance in relation to substantive matters, strategic planning, and the day-to-day management of the Programme. His specific responsibilities include supervising all Divisions and Regional Offices and overseeing all internal programme co-ordination, monitoring and evaluation mechanisms. He also plays a key role in maintaining UNEP's relations with Governments, working both to enhance the Programme's understanding of the expectations and environmental needs of Governments and to keep Governments fully informed of UNEP's ongoing activities and plans.

Mr Shafqat Kakakhel, a national of Pakistan, served with the Foreign Service of his country for over twenty-eight years. In addition to undertaking various assignments at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Islamabad, he also completed postings in Beirut, Cairo, Bonn, Jeddah, and New Delhi. His last posting was to Nairobi, where he served as High Commissioner (Ambassador) to Kenya and Permanent Representative to the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and the United Nations Centre on Human Settlements (now the United Nations Human Settlements Programme).

During his diplomatic career, Mr Kakakhel represented his country in numerous inter-governmental negotiations and events, including meetings of the United Nations Commission on Sustainable Development. He was also the principal spokesman of the Group of 77 and China during the preparatory process for the Habitat II Conference and the Chairman of the committee which negotiated the Habitat Agenda during the Conference itself (Istanbul, 1996).

Mr. Kakakhel has a Master of Arts degree in Political Science. He is married with three children.

Dr Pearman was trained as a biologist at the University of Western Australia. He joined CSIRO (Australia) and became Chief of the Division of Atmospheric Research, 1992-2002. He is now Director of his own consultancy company and is an Honorary Senior Research Fellow with Monash University.

His personal research lead to over 150 peer-reviewed journal papers, primarily on atmospheric composition changes and the global carbon cycle. He has had a long and active interest in the communication of science (particularly climate change science) to the community for which he was presented a UN Environment Program Global 500 Award in 1989. He was elected to Fellowship of the Australian Academy of Science (1988), the Royal Society of Victoria (1997) and the Australian Academy of Technological Science and Engineering (2005).

His current interests are in energy futures, the science-policy interface, sustainability science, science capacity building in the developing world and the role of science in modern societies.

Phillip Toyne is a Director of Eco Futures, an Australian based international policy firm working on building sustainable strategies with business, government and civic leaders.

From 1994-1997, Phillip was Deputy Secretary in the Commonwealth Department of Environment, where he played a major role in the international policy arena on issues such as biodiversity, sustainable development and climate change. Between 1992 and 1994 Phillip was a visiting Fellow at Australian National University , where he taught environmental law and policy, wrote the Book "The Reluctant Nation" and developed the national ABC Radio series based on the book.

Between 1986 and 1992, Phillip was Executive Director of the Australian Conservation Foundation, where he led successful campaigns on mining in Kakadu, the Wet Tropics, Antarctica , and began the long process of merging green and aboriginal partnerships. He also developed the National Land Care program with NFF head Rick Farley, a movement which has radically changed land use practices in Australia and which is now moving to Africa and America.

Before ACF, Phillip spent 14 years in the desert, first as a schoolteacher in a remote aboriginal community at Haasts Bluff, and then as the first lawyer for the Pitjantjatjara aboriginal people. During that time, Phillip successfully negotiated the passage of the Pitjantjatjara Land Rights Act, and then led the negotiations for the traditional owners of Uluru (Ayres Rock) resulting in them receiving title to the National Park. The leaseback arrangement and the joint management arrangements for the Park were a world first, and are used as a model today around the world in reconciling indigenous and environment issues.

Phillip is President of the Australian Bush Heritage Fund, a director of Integrated Tree Cropping Ltd and CVC Sustainability Fund Ltd and on several advisory bodies, such as the Minerals Council of Australia's External Sustainable Development Advisory Group. He is a former member of the National Land Care Advisory Committee, the Genetic Manipulation Advisory Committee, Australian Population Council, the Prime Minister's Ecologically Sustainable Development Round Tables, the Lake Eyre Basin Coordinating Committee, and was a Murray Darling Basin Commissioner....pdf version

Born in 1960, Laurent Stéfanini joined the French diplomatic service in 1985 after studying political sciences and history at Ecole Nationale d'Administration and New York University. Since then he has been working in Paris at the legal department (law of the see and law of disarmament), the economic department (head of the environment, energy and transportation division) and the office of the secretary general. He was posted in New York (French mission to the United Nations) and Rome (embassy to the Holy See) and was also for a while deputy head of the protocol department and adviser for religious affairs of the foreign ministry. Mr Stefanini, who is also teaching in various universities and giving lectures, has just recently taken on the new duty of ambassador for the environment.

Dr Clive Hamilton is the Australia Institute's Executive Director. He has previously been an academic economist and a senior public servant. He has held visiting academic positions at the University of Cambridge, the Australian National University, and the University of Sydney. Clive's research work at the Institute has emphasised climate change policy, measures of well-being (especially the Institute's Genuine Progress Indicator), privatisation and taxation issues. He has published on a wide range of issues including measures of national progress, the environment, and spirituality. His book, Growth Fetish, published by Allen & Unwin in 2003, was a best-seller. His most recent book, Affluenza, co-authored with Richard Denniss, was published by Allen & Unwin in June 2005.

Charles Berger is currently Legal Adviser for the Australian Conservation Foundation (ACF). In addition to advising ACF on internal and environmental legal matters, Charles leads ACF's advocacy on corporate environmental responsibility issues. Major ACF initiatives in this area have included collaborative work with major Australian corporations on key environmental issues, a groundbreaking study of sustainability in the financial sector, and several legal challenges to unsustainable corporate activity and developments.

Before joining ACF, Charles practiced corporate law for three years with the firm Cleary, Gottlieb, Steen and Hamilton in New York and Brussels. He also served as Associate to Justice Susan Kenny at the Federal Court of Australia.

Charles holds law degrees from the Yale Law School and the University of Frankfurt, Germany, and is admitted to legal practice in New York and Victoria. He is an avid sea kayaker, a passion he shares with his wife Cassandra Humble.

Mr François Descoueyte has been Ambassador of France to Australia since September 2005. Previously he was France's Ambassador to Korea, Inspector of Foreign Affairs, and Ambassador to Uganda. Mr Descoueyte has degrees in Political Science, Law and Public Administration, and was Diplomatic Adviser to the Minister in charge of Cooperation and Development. He spent some time as Deputy Director in charge of Western Europe, Bureau of European Affairs; and was Head of international affairs, French Planning Commission. Ambassador Descoueyte has also had postings to Japan (twice) and India.

His Excellency Mr Bruno Julien has been Ambassador and Head of the Delegation of the European Commission to Australia and New Zealand since 2005. From 2001-2005, he was Head of the LIFE Unit (the EU's financial instrument for the environment) at the Environment Directorate-General of the European Commission. Between 1995 and 2001 Mr Julien was Head of Unit, Technical and financial management of nature conservation (LIFE Nature) projects, and has had a long and distinguished career with the European Commission in a number of capacities. Prior to joining the Commission, Mr Juien was an  Associate Professor at the Institut de Gestion International Agro-Alimentaire (Groupe ESSEC, Cergy-Pontoise), and Principal Economist, United Nations Development Programme in Ouagadougou.

For Mr Julien's full biographical details, please see Delegation website

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