IUCN - The World Conversation Union

Kalev Sepp, Estonia, is currently a Professor of Landscape Management and Nature Conservation at the Institute of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences at the Estonian Agricultural University.

He is a well-known and highly respected person in both scientific and nature conservation management/policy circles in Estonia and worldwide. He has published three books and more than 30 peer-reviewed scientific articles. He has given numerous invited lectures at European Universities and International Political Forums. His work has been funded by the European Science Foundation, European Commission, PIN-Mantra and the Estonian National Science Foundation.

Professor Sepp has extensive international experience on the nature conservation policy and management scene having a long record of engagement with the work of different international organizations (IUCN, IIASA, ECNC, CEU etc) and has himself coordinated several projects of these organizations. He is a member of the recently established IUCN “Countdown 2010” Working Group.

Alexey V. Yablokov holds a Doctorate in Biology and is President of the Centre for Russian Environmental Policy (NGO) and Counsellor of the Russian Academy of Sciences.

Author of some 450 publications on conservation and population biology, zoology and radioecology (including: "Conservation of Living Nature and Resources”; “Levels of Living Nature Protection", “Nuclear Mythology”, “Non-Invasive Study of Mammalian Populations”). His fields of interest include environmental policy; biodiversity; population biology, environmental human rights, marine mammals.

Alexey Yablokov was Co-Chair of the International Socio-Ecological Union (1997–2000), Deputy Chair of the Committee on Ecology of the USSR Parliament (1989–1991); Adviser on Ecology to the President of Russia (1991–1993); Chair of the Russian Working Group on the Western Grey Whale (from 2003) . He has also served as an IUCN Vice-President and Regional Councillor for East Europe, North and Central Asia, 2000–2004 and was elected to a second term as Regional Councillor at IUCN’s World Conservation Congress in Bangkok, Thailand in November 2004.

Marija Zupancic-Vicar, Slovenia, has more than 20 years of experience in management and policy making with the Slovenian agencies, the government and parliament, inter alia as Director of the Triglav National Park, Minister for the Environment and Spatial Planning and elected member of parliament. For more than 10 years she has been working voluntarily at the international level and in particular with and for IUCN, mainly as a member of the World Commission on Protected Areas, as its Regional Vice Chair for Europe and at present as Senior Advisor. Her main fields of interest are protected area management, social policy, World Heritage, transboundary co-operation and ecosystem management. Based on the acquired knowledge of policies and management of nature conservation in Eastern and in particular in South-Eastern Europe she serves as a key contact point in the Region to facilitate the work of IUCN members, Secretariat and Commissions.