Dimitri Syrris, South African, is a conservation-community technologist and a wildlife-ranger at heart. Dimitri has been privileged to call Africa his home, exploring 14 African countries, where his love for nature and people continues to super-charge all of his actions. Having spent several years in London, working in the marketing-technology and big-data ecospheres – he returned to Africa in early 2019 for a 7 month due diligence expedition across Kenya, Tanzania, Botswana, Mozambique and South Africa. Living and working with NGO’s and marginalised communities on the borders of wildlife protected areas. This expedition inspired Dimitri to infuse his love for technology into the world of conservation and community relationship management. Recognising that if we wish to preserve our last remaining biodiverse rich ecosystems – we need to serve, provide the tools and empower frontline communities into the core of the solution, which includes their voices and actions, as the true custodians of their land. This is why he founded Baotree, a software solution that enables environmental action at a local level, supports diplomacy and communication across all grass-root stakeholders.

Friedrich Wulf, b. 1966 in Sindelfingen (Germany), is a Biologist and vegetation scientist by training. After working for several years as a field biologist, he turned his voluntary engagement for nature conservation NGOs into a profession, serving as nature conservation officer at regional, national, EU and international levels for BirdLife and Friends of the Earth Germany. Since 2008, he works for Pro Natura – Friends of the Earth Switzerland – as international biodiversity officer. He represents Pro Natura and Friends of the Earth Europe at the Bern Convention and, by way of the complaints system, has successfully convinced the Convention to adopt a set of recommendations (Nr. 169/2013) to improve the state of the Doubs river and its endangered fish fauna on the Border between France and Switzerland.

Dr Ritesh Kumar is the Director of Wetlands International South Asia, a non-government organisation working for sustaining and restoring wetlands, their resources and biodiversity in the South Asia region. Over the last two decades, Dr Kumar has led integrated management planning for several wetlands in South Asia region, and coordinated multidisciplinary projects on wetlands assessment, ecosystem services evaluation, water management, sustainable livelihoods, disaster risk reduction and climate change adaptation. Dr Kumar has been part of several policy making processes related to wetlands in India, key being a part of the drafting team of national regulation on wetlands, the National Biodiversity Targets under the Convention of Biological Diversity and indicators for Sustainable Development Goals. He advises several state governments on policy and management aspects of wetlands.

From a farming background in Co. Waterford, Brendan has spent over 20 years living and working in the Burren. In 2001 he completed his doctorate on the impact of farming on the heritage of the Burren, and later led the award-winning BurrenLIFE Project. He currently manages its successor, the ‘Burren Programme’ which works with over 300 farmers on 23,000ha of heritage-rich landscape. Along with his late wife Ann O’Connor, Brendan co-founded the Burrenbeo Trust which aims to ‘connect all of us to our places and our role in caring for them’ and co-ordinates events such as the Burren Winterage School and festival. Brendan is also a founder of the ‘Farming for Nature’ initiative which aims to acknowledge, celebrate and support farmers across Ireland who work to protect nature.  Brendan has previously served as a board member of the Heritage Council and on the Advisory Board of the EPA. He has participated in committees advising on issues such as Ireland’s World Heritage Site Tentative list and Agri Food 2030 Strategy. In 2011 he became an Ashoka Fellow and in 2018 he was awarded an Honorary Doctorate by NUI Galway for his work in championing biodiversity.