Key Note Speeches

The Key Note Speakers for the Congress were:

Gillian Martin Mehers, IUCN – The World Conservation Union

Keynote Speech: New Learning for Sustainability’s Leaders

Before working for the IUCN, Ms Martin Mehers was the Director of Capacity Development at LEAD International. Leadership for Environment and Development (LEAD) International is a global network of individuals and non-governmental organizations, committed to sustainable development. LEAD is an independent, not-for-profit organization, established in 1991 by The Rockefeller Foundation and the network is coordinated through an international secretariat based in the campus of Imperial College London.

Professor Dmitry Kavtaradze, Moscow State University, Russia.

Keynote Speech: Games for Education for Sustainable Development: From Knowledge to Understanding.

Professor Kavtaradze is Head of the Department of Natural Resource Management and Head of the Laboratory of Ecology and Nature Conservation at Moscow State University. Since 1984 he has been a member of the International Society of Gaming and Simulations and has written more than 200 articles in scientific journals and around 15 simulation games and manuals. In 2000 he was awarded the prestigious Putin Award for education and in 2003 he produced a toolkit entitled “Green Backpack” which focuses on decision making training in environmental education.

Dr Cristian Samper

Dr Samper is director of the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History, USA. He has a degree in biology from the University of the Andes in Bogotá, Colombia, and a masters and doctorate in biology from Harvard University, USA. He is also the Deputy Director of the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute and member of the Board of Trustees for the Center for International Forestry Research.

Smithsonian Institution www.si.edu

Kim Wilkie

Mr Wilkie is a landscape architect, urban designer and environmental planner. He read modern history at Oxford, UK, and landscape architecture at the University of California, Berkeley, USA.

Mr Wilkie has worked on projects ranging from botanic gardens to city centres, always looking for the best possible environment for people to be in. In 1989, he set up his practice, Kim Wilkie Associates, to have the freedom to promote projects that explore the relationship between land and culture and between community and place.

Kim Wilkie Associates www.kimwilkie.com