IUCN - The World Conversation Union

Lionel Gibson, Fiji, is the Regional Governance Programme Manager for the Foundation of the Peoples of the South Pacific International (FSPI). FSPI is the regional secretariat for a network of 10 national Pacific Island NGOs based in Fiji, Tonga, Kiribati, Tuvalu, Papua New Guinea, Palau, Solomon Islands, Samoa, Vanuatu and East Timor. FSPI’s major focus is on community based service delivery work and it currently has four major programmes: governance, coastal, disaster preparedness and health.

Lionel has conducted research and currently works in the area of environmental governance, at the community level where the major focus is on understanding the structures through which decisions regarding how resources are used are made and carried out (or not as the case may be). He also works with communities in the Pacific to facilitate more sustainable relationships between people and the environment.

He taught for 15 years at the University of the South Pacific in the Geography Department where his two major areas of interest were resource management and conservation and environment and development.

Lionel is also the Chairperson of the Pacific Islands Roundtable on Nature Conservation which is the body set up by regional institutions as a mechanism for strengthening cooperation, coordination and monitoring of efforts to implement the Pacific Islands Action Strategy for Nature Conservation.

Christine Milne, Australia, is an Australian Greens Party Senator. She is a member of numerous environmental NGOs and has worked for more than two decades for the protection of old growth forests as an activist and politician (member of Parliament in Tasmania 1989-1998). In Parliament she was instrumental in the expansion of the Tasmanian South West Wilderness World Heritage Area and the creation of several new national parks. She used her position to develop greater awareness in the tourism and primary industry sectors of their responsibilities in relation to ecologically sustainable development. She has also been a strong advocate for the rights of indigenous people struggling to protect their land from mining and forestry interests in Australia, Indonesia and New Caledonia.

She is global in her perspective and strategic in her thinking as demonstrated by her involvement in campaigns for adoption of the Earth Charter, protection of the integrity of the World Heritage Convention and her efforts to secure a policy debate on Genetic Engineering in IUCN as well as greater involvement of IUCN in climate change negotiations and in the region of Oceania.

She has attended Conferences of the Parties to the Framework Convention on Climate Change, World Heritage Committee meetings, the Global Greens Conference, the Global Biodiversity Forum, and the Pacific Island Nations Conference on Nature Protection. In 2003, she addressed the 2003 World Parks Congress Plenary on the issue of mining and protected areas.

Christine Milne is a Vice President of IUCN and a former President of the Australian Committee for IUCN 2002-2003. She is currently a member of the ACIUCN Executive and the Oceania Regional Committee.

Diana Shand, New Zealand, has contributed to conservation and environmental work through community, professional and political involvements over three decades. She is currently National Programme Manager for Communities for Climate Protection™ – New Zealand, a New Zealand Government initiative delivered by ICLEI. She holds an MBA from McGill University.

As Canterbury Regional Councillor for 15 years. Diana worked in environmental planning and regulation, including regional plans for land, water and air under the Resource Management Act which promotes sustainable management of natural and physical resources, For many years she has chaired the transport portfolio working for sustainable transport.

She is a constant advocate for biodiversity, energy and climate change considerations, and community participation.

A former Human Rights Commissioner, she has worked on social justice and indigenous peoples issues.

Diana was NGO member of the New Zealand Government delegation to the 1992 UNCED – Rio Earth Summit, and promoted Local Agenda 21 throughout New Zealand.