Professions and civil society

Christiana Figueres is a Costa Rican citizen and was the Executive Secretary of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change 2010 - 2016.

During her tenure at the UNFCCC, Ms. Figueres brought together national and sub-national governments, corporations and activists, financial institutions and NGOs to jointly deliver the historic Paris Agreement on climate change, in which 195 sovereign nations agreed on a collaborative path forward to limit future global warming to well below 2°C, and strive for 1.5°C in order to protect the most vulnerable. For this achievement Ms. Figueres has been credited with forging a new brand of collaborative diplomacy, for which she has received multiple awards.

Since then Ms. Figueres has continued to serve her one and only boss, the global atmosphere.  She sits on multiple boards and is a founding partner of Global Optimism Ltd., a purpose driven enterprise focused on social and environmental change.  She convenes Mission 2020 and co-chairs the Global Covenant of Mayors.  

She is a graduate of Swarthmore College and the London School of Economics. She lives in Costa Rica and has two fantastic daughters.

David Suzuki, Co-Founder of the David Suzuki Foundation, is an award-winning scientist, environmentalist and broadcaster, including the award-winning The Nature of Things. Dr Suzuki is a geneticist and is now Professor Emeritus at the University of British Columbia. He is the recipient of UNESCO's Kalinga Prize for Science, the United Nations Environment Program Medal, UNEPs Global 500 and in 2009 won the Right Livelihood Award, considered to be the Alternative Nobel Prize.

Photo by David Suzuki Foundation

Aged 18, Satish Kumar made a peace pilgrimage from India, bringing “peace tea” to global leaders from Moscow to Washington. Regarded as a leading green thinker, he edits Resurgence magazine and is a guiding light of the famous Schumacher College. He has Honorary Doctorates from the Universities of Lancaster and Plymouth and has received the Jamnalal Bajaj International Award for Promoting Gandhian Values Outside India. He has written a widely read autobiography No Destination.

Jonathon Porritt CBE, Co-Founder of Forum for the Future, is an eminent writer, broadcaster, and commentator on sustainable development. From 2000-2009, he was Chairman of the UK Sustainable Development Commission, providing high-level advice to Government Ministers. He is Co-Director of The Prince of Wales's Business and Sustainability Programme. Porritt received a CBE in 2000 for services to environmental protection. He is a Patron of Compassion in World Farming.

Dr Tony Juniper CBE is the Executive Director for Advocacy and Campaigns at WWF-UK. He previously worked with Birdlife International and Friends of the Earth, where he was Executive Director 2003-8. Juniper’s many books include the 2013 best-seller What has Nature ever done for us? His latest book, Rainforest – dispatches from Earth’s most vital frontlines, was published in April 2018. Juniper was the first recipient of the Charles and Miriam Rothschild conservation medal (2009) and was awarded honorary Doctor of Science degrees from the Universities of Bristol and Plymouth (2013). In 2017 he was appointed Commander of the British Empire (CBE) for services to conservation. Juniper is a Fellow with the University of Cambridge Institute for Sustainability Leadership and President of the Wildlife Trusts.

Bill is a leading climate change writer and activist. His 1989 book, “The End of Nature” was ground-breaking (now in 24 languages). Many other books followed and his latest is Falter: Has the Human Game Begun to Play Itself Out? (Henry Holt and Co., 2019). Bill is a Schumann Distinguished Scholar at Middlebury College and he has won many awards, including the Sierra Club’s John Muir award, the Gandhi award and, together with the organisation he co-founded, 350.org, the Right Livelihood award. 350.org is a planet-wide, grassroots climate change movement, and has organised many thousands of rallies globally.

Dr. Lyla June Johnston (aka Lyla June) is an Indigenous musician, author, and community organizer of Diné (Navajo), Tsétsêhéstâhese (Cheyenne) and European lineages. Her multi-genre presentation style has engaged audiences across the globe towards personal, collective, and ecological healing. She blends her study of Human Ecology at Stanford, graduate work in Indigenous Pedagogy, and the traditional worldview she grew up with to inform her music, perspectives and solutions. Her doctoral research focused on the ways in which pre-colonial Indigenous Nations shaped large regions of Turtle Island (aka the Americas) to produce abundant food systems for humans and non-humans.

Elizabeth Wathuti is a passionate environmentalist and climate activist from Kenya. She is the founder of Green Generation Initiative (GGI), the Head of Campaigns and coordinator of Daima coalition for the protection of urban green spaces at the Wangari Maathai Foundation. She is a board member of the Elephant neighbours centre and a youth council member of International Reserva: The Youth Land Trust. She has received many awards, including the Wangari Maathai Scholarship Award from The Kenya Community Development Foundation, the Greenbelt Movement, and the Rockefeller Foundation.  The Diana Award 2019 for going above and beyond in her daily life to create and sustain positive change, and the young climate champion 2019 award from the Green Climate Fund (GCF).

Dr Thomas Legrand is the Lead Technical Advisor for the UNDP-convened Conscious Food Systems Alliance and author of the internationally acclaimed Politics of Being: Wisdom and Science for a New Development Paradigm, an invitation to radically rethink our model of development. Thomas has worked on (ecological) economics, forest conservation, climate change, sustainable finance, and leadership, in particular the link between inner and outer transformations.

Dr Hans R Herren is President of the Millennium Institute which assists development partners in the design, implementation and reporting on the SDGs. An agricultural scientist, he was awarded the World Food Prize in 1995 for his work on biological pest control at the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (1979-1994). In Nairobi he ran the International Centre of Insect Physiology and Ecology (1994-2005).

He is a passionate believer in sustainable, ecological agriculture and co-chaired the International Assessment of Agricultural Knowledge, Science and Technology, (IAASTD), and is founder of the Biovision Foundation based in Zürich.

Maneka was made Minister for Women and Child Development in the Indian government in 2014. She founded People For Animals, which runs 36 free veterinary hospitals. She is a prolific author, and her "animal" radio and TV shows are famous. Previously when she led a different Ministry, she took action on wildlife, animal testing and zoos and set up the Animal Welfare Board of India. She has received many awards for her work for animals, the environment and peace.

Dr Vandana Shiva trained as a physicist and has also carried out inter-disciplinary research in science, technology and environmental policy. She founded the Research Foundation for Science, Technology and Ecology, and the national movement to protect the diversity and integrity of living resources, Navdanya. She also founded Bija Vidyapeeth, an international college for sustainable living.

Dr Shiva has been identified by Time as an environmental 'hero', by Asia Week as one of the five most powerful communicators of Asia and by Forbes magazine as one of the top Seven most Powerful Women on the Globe. She has been awarded honorary Doctorates by the Universities of Paris, Western Ontario, Oslo and Guelph.

Among her many awards are the Alternative Nobel Prize (Right Livelihood Award, 1993), Order of the Golden Ark, Global 500 Award of UN and Earth Day International Award, the Lennon ONO grant for peace award in 2009, the Sydney Peace Prize in 2010, the Doshi Bridgebuilder Award, Calgary Peace Prize and Thomas Merton Award in 2011, the Fukuoka Award and The Prism of Reason Award in 2012, the Grifone d’Argento prize and the MIDORI Prize for Biodiversity in 2016, the Veerangana Award 2018, the Sanctuary Wildlife Award 2018, the International Environment Summit & Award 2018 and the Amrita Devi Award 2021.

Tristram won the international environmental award, The Sophie Prize 2011, for his fight against food waste. His books The Bloodless Revolution (2006) and Waste: Uncovering the Global Food Scandal (Penguin, 2009) are regarded as cutting-edge. His 'Feeding the 5000' event and campaign, where 5000 people get a free lunch using only ingredients that otherwise would have been wasted, has spread globally following the first such event in London's Trafalgar Square.

Dr Kalema-Zikusoka is Uganda’s first wildlife veterinarian. She is the founder of both an award-winning NGO, Conservation Through Public Health and an award-winning social enterprise, Gorilla Conservation Coffee. Both organisations are dedicated to the coexistence of endangered mountain gorillas, other wildlife and humans in Africa. She is a true trailblazer, leading Uganda and the rest of the world to recognise the interconnectedness between the health of wildlife and humans. This has led to her being recognised as a 2021 UNEP Champion of the Earth and she won the 2022 Edinburgh Medal for her impactful work addressing human, animal and environmental health together. Dr Gladys works tirelessly to bring to the world’s attention the importance of a One Health approach to conservation, which recognises these links and creates programmes that foster synergies between conservation and public health by promoting animal welfare, wildlife conservation and public health for the mutual benefit of all – and for the sake of collective global health and biodiversity conservation.

Sir David Madden is a retired diplomat, who served as British Ambassador in Greece (1999-2004), where he helped the Greek government achieve a break-through against terrorism. He served as Political Adviser to the European Union Peace-Keeping Force in Bosnia and Herzegovina. He has written a conclusion to Charles Dickens’ unfinished novel, The Mystery of Edwin Drood (Unthank, 2011). He co-authored Balkan Legacies of the Great War: The Past Is Never Dead (with Othon Anastasakis and Elizabeth Roberts), Palgrave Macmillan, 2016. Sir David is a Board member of Compassion in World Farming.

Andrea is a veterinarian and is currently in charge of the Animal Welfare Unit in the Health and Consumers Directorate General of the European Commission. Since 2001, he has been an active member of the “Working Group on Animal Welfare” of the World Animal Health Organization (OIE) and he is member of specific working groups at international level with EU trading partners. Andrea is on the editorial board of the "FAO Gateway to Farm Animal Welfare".

Nitin founded the Young Indian Vegetarians Society and is well known for organising high profile campaigns. Nitin is regularly published in the national press. He received an MBE in 1999 for his services to the community and has received the Ahimsa award from the Institute of Jainology. Nitin believes that granting rights to animals is crucial for the moral well being of the human race and we owe it to future generations to aim to bring compassion and peace to other species.

Dr Chinny Krishna is Co-founder and Chairman Emeritus of the Blue Cross of India. He is the Vice-Chairman of the Animal Welfare Board of India, Chairman of the Federation of Indian Animal Protection Organisations and International Director of the World Society for the Protection of Animals. He is Chairman and Managing Director of Aspick Engineering P Ltd and is an elected Fellow of the Institution of Engineers and the Indian Institution of Chemical Engineers.

David Bilchitz is a Professor of Human Rights and Constitutional Law at the University of Johannesburg and Director of the South African Institute for Advanced Constitutional, Public, Human Rights and International Law (SAIFAC). He is currently Secretary General of the International Association of Constitutional Law (IACL). He writes widely on the rights of animals under South African law, believing that a just political community must respect the dignity, integrity and welfare of animals.

Geoff Tansey is an independent writer who curates the online, open access Food Systems Academy.  He chaired the independent Fabian Commission on Food and Poverty 2014-15, and was a member of The Food Ethics Council from 2000-21. His books include The Food System: A Guide (with Tony Worsley) and co-editorship of The future control of food - A guide to international negotiations and rules on intellectual property, biodiversity and food security. In June 2005, he received one of six Joseph Rowntree "Visionaries for a Just and Peaceful World" Awards. In 2008, he won the Derek Cooper Award for best food campaigner/educator, at the BBC Radio 4 Food and Farming Awards.

Advocate Paul Hoffman is a director of the Institute For Accountability in Southern Africa, an NGO dedicated to exacting accountability and promoting responsiveness to the needs of ordinary people. He was a member of the Cape Bar for 26 years. His experience as a litigator now enables him to engage in "lawfare" against those who behave unaccountably. He is best known for his anticorruption activities both in the public and the private sector.

Zhang Dan is China’s Ambassador for World Animal Day and is the co-founder of the China Animal Protection Media Salon. She was editor in chief of Animal Essays. Zhang Dan has worked actively against animal cruelty in China and was awarded the first Andrew Award for Outstanding Media Contribution at the 7th Asia for Animals Conference in 2011.

Amy is an attorney and the first South African to graduate with a Master’s degree in Animal Law. She has been involved in animal protection for a number of years and is a dedicated activist on animal, human and environmental matters. She is co-founder and director of the first organization dedicated to animal law in her country - Animal Law Reform South Africa. She also works throughout Africa and in the USA on a broad variety of animal protection issues, focusing on the legitimization of animal law as a field, equipping lawyers and the promotion of animal law education and scholarship.

South African farming pioneer Richard Haigh has been hailed by the Worldwatch Institute and Slow Food International for his agro-ecological methods of farming indigenous Zulu sheep and Nguni cattle at his farm Enaleni in KwaZulu Natal. In October 2012, Richard gave a presentation at the Slow Food Terra Madre event in Turin, Italy, where he appealed to farmers to heed the call by Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu for an evolution towards humane and sustainable farming.

A committed animal welfarist, Daniela Battaglia works in the Animal Production and Health Division of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO). She coordinates the Gateway to Farm Animal Welfare and coproduces FAOcast. Previously, Daniela was with the European Commission and has worked extensively in farm animal projects in Latin America, North Africa and the Middle East.

Kath Dalmeny is Chief Executive of Sustain: The alliance for better food and farming. She is also a member of the London Food Board and helped establish the Sustainable Food Cities Network. She instigated Sustainable Fish Cities to persuade major foodservice companies to serve only sustainable fish, and the Right to Food initiative to address food poverty systematically so that everyone can eat well. She is a vocal advocate of high standards for food, environment and animal welfare, and champions better trading practices and government support to reward food producers and workers for all the benefits they generate. She also helps run the Campaign for Better Hospital Food, and sits on Defra’s food procurement taskforce. On a voluntary basis she serves on the board of Growing Communities, an award-winning community-run sustainable food trading enterprise based in Hackney.

Norma is an advocate of the Bombay High Court and has argued, pro bono, over 100 cases on environmental pollution, animal rights and women's issues, including achieving a ban on bullfighting in Goa, her home state, where she is a well-known campaigner. She is a member of the Animal Welfare Board of India and Chair of the Federation of Indian Animal Protection Organisations (FIAPO). She was awarded the Padma Shri for her work for the protection of animals and the environment in 2002.

Timmie spent many years volunteering in northern India, rescuing animals from circuses, rehoming strays and caring for wild animals. More recently, as a hotelier in Jaipur, she has become the Managing Trustee of Help in Suffering, which offers free veterinary treatment to animals. Today, Jaipur enjoys a rabies-free environment due to the HIS Animal Birth Control/vaccination program. She has been awarded by the Humane Society of the US (2012) and she won the "Pride of Jaipur" award (2013).

A graduate of  the University of East Anglia and the Toronto & Waterloo Universities in Canada, he has written widely on multi-sector partnerships and sustainable development. He is a member of the European Commission Working Group on short food chain development.

Chris Darwin, the great, great grandson of Charles Darwin, is an environmentalist, adventurer and ambassador for Bush Heritage Australia. His fundraising helped them buy the Charles Darwin Reserve in Western Australia. He believes we can halt the mass extinction of species by eating less meat and fish. He has developed the Darwin Challenge app. to help people reduce their meat consumption: https://www.thedarwinchallenge.org/

Adam and Jessica began their philanthropy straight out of university. To address global biodiversity loss, in 2009 they founded Synchronicity Earth, which identifies conservation priorities and finds the people best placed to tackle them. Recently, they were appointed International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Patrons of Nature, helping to raise the visibility of global conservation needs worldwide. In 2015 they were made Honorary Conservation Fellows for the Zoological Society of London.

Katya Lester is a barrister and works as a Judge in the Immigration and Asylum Tribunal. She is a long-standing supporter of Compassion in World Farming and was a co-founder of what was the SDP Animal Protection Group. 

Grazia is a leading environmentalist and writer. She has been President of WWF-Italy and is a former Green Party MP and former President of the Italian Green Party. She now leads on international relationships for Greenaccord, a secular organisation for the safeguarding of creation. She has written several books on sustainability and the relationship between spirituality and conservation and also a chapter in Sacred Species and Sites (Cambridge University Press).

Nithi is Director and Regional Coordinator of Climate Action Network Southeast Asia and President of the Environmental Protection Society Malaysia. He is a Civil Society Observer to the Climate Investment Funds (CIF) and an Advisory Group member of CIF’s Evaluation and Learning Initiative. Nithi is Co-Organiser of the Just Transition Forum Asia, held annually since 2021. He is Past President of Chevening Alumni Malaysia, an association of leaders awarded the Chevening Scholarship by the UK Government. Nithi is an International Advisory Board member of the Archbishop Desmond Tutu Centre for War and Peace Studies at Liverpool Hope University. He has Masters’ degrees from the University of South Australia. A vegetarian since 1969 at the age of nine, Nithi became a vegan in 2021.

Natalie Fee is an award-winning environmentalist, author, speaker and founder of City to Sea, a UK-based organisation running campaigns to stop plastic pollution at source. This year she was awarded the Sunday Times Volvo Visionaries Award for her campaign work. In 2018 Natalie was listed as one of the UK’s ‘50 New Radicals’ by The Observer / Nesta and in the same year the University of the West of England awarded her the Honorary Degree of Doctor of Science in recognition of her campaign work. She won the Sheila McKechnie Award for Environmental Justice in 2017 for City to Sea's #SwitchtheStick campaign and is proud to have been named Bristol 24/7’s Woman of the Year for 2018. Her book, How to Save the World for Free (Lawrence King Publishing) is due out October 2019. She can be found on Instagram as nataliefee_ and on Twitter as nataliefee.

Patrick is CEO of The Sustainable Food Trust, which promotes international cooperation between all those involved in sustainable food production. He was Director of the Soil Association, the leading British organic farming organisation, from 1995 to 2010, where he played a leading role in developing the UK organic market. He trained in Biodynamic farming at Emerson College and has a mixed organic dairy holding in Wales. He received a CBE for services to organic farming in 2005.

Altamush Saeed is an award-winning Pakistani Interspecies Justice lawyer, activist, philanthropist and teacher. He is an Animal Law Professor at the University of Central Punjab Law School, where he teaches Pakistan's first Animal Law Advocacy Course. He is also a Founding Managing Partner at Pakistan’s first dedicated Animal and Environmental law and policy firm and co-founded the Charity Doings Foundation which works on Interspecies Justice. 

Altamush runs Pakistan's first Disaster Zone Farm Animal Shelter. In 2023 he was awarded the Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Trailblazer in Animal Welfare Award from the Humane Society of the United States at HSUS Expo 2023 and the Inaugural DEI Trailblazer Spark Award recipient at the HSUS Expo 2024.

Svein is a former Director of UNEP and environmental ambassador to the city of Arendal. With a long history of writing and lecturing on climate change, he is founder and CEO of Klima2020, an environmental consultancy based in Norway. He is also Chair of the Norwegian Rainforest Foundation. His publications include “Climate in Peril” (2010) a Popular guide to the IPCC reports http://www.grida.no/publications/climate-in-peril/ and “Green Shift” (2013) A handbook for environmentally friendly regions in Europe. He has 300,000 followers on Twitter: @tveitdal

Mark Benecke is a forensic biologist, entomologist, researcher, lecturer, and author. His investigative work with different Criminal Justice Departments and as a private investigator has taken him all around the world and he is a valued guest on TV shows. Mark writes books for children, creates science experiment kits and raises awareness about autism. He is passionate about nature and speaks out against factory farming. To learn more about his work and fascinating life, you can either visit his website or find some of his English articles here.

Photo Credit: www.danielhammelstein.com (Daniel Hammelstein).

Guo Jianmei is the first full-time public welfare lawyer in China. She founded the women's law research and service centre of Peking University in 1995. The centre has been "protecting women's rights, promoting the progress of the legal system and the development of civil society" through legal aid, public interest litigation, research, training, submission of legislative proposals and participation in legislation. Many of their cases have led to the improvement of relevant legislation. She has won many domestic and international awards, including the Simon de Beauvoir Prize for Women's Rights Award, the International Women of Courage Award in the US, and the "Right Livelihood Award" in Sweden.

Natascha Kooiman is a Dutch Sustainability Rebel. She is founder of Smaackmakers, co-founder of the Transition Coalition Food, has a seat at the Food Table of the Dutch Climate Agreement, and is an ambassador of the sustainable soil initiative ‘Aardpeer’. The social enterprise Smaackmakers - through advice, training, workshops - accelerates a healthier, more sustainable and more plant-based food environment. With her fighting spirit Natascha is one of the Sustainable Youth 100, one of the Food 100, is a TED speaker and was twice appointed by VIVA400 as 'young woman with influence'. For 6 years, Smaackmakers was on the advisory board of the Sustainable Food System Program of the United Nations for the Sustainable Development Goals. Natascha is also the initiator of the campaign 'A little less meat advertising'.

Hira Jaleel is a lawyer from Pakistan specializing in Animal Law. She received her LLM in Animal Law from Lewis & Clark Law School, where she was a Fulbright Scholar and recipient of the Animal Law LLM Leadership Award. Hira is a Senior Associate at Axis Law Chambers in Lahore. She advises clients on animal-related legal issues, such as the legal rights of clients threatened with eviction and seizure of their companion animals, advising on the prosecution of animal abuse cases, and assisting animal welfare non-profits.

Hira is currently litigating a case against indiscriminate culling of street dogs by state authorities. She has also been appointed amicus curiae by the Lahore High Court in a case that seeks to ban the possession of wild animals as exotic pets. Hira has drafted a model Animal Rights Act for the Province of Sindh and is currently drafting an Animal Welfare Act for the Province of Punjab. Her writing on animal welfare issues has been published in news publications in Pakistan, the US, and the UK.

Wendel Trio is Director of Climate Action Network Europe (CAN Europe). He is former Campaign Director of Greenpeace Belgium and served as Head of the Political and Business Unit at Greenpeace International, where he also led on the organisation’s work on climate change. CAN Europe works to improve Europe's climate and energy policies in cooperation with the network’s 150 NGOs, which include Compassion in World Farming.

Since 2007, Dr Yaya Olaniran has been Permanent Representative of Nigeria to the Rome-based Food Agencies of the United Nations. In October 2011 he was elected Chair of the Committee on World Food Security. Dr Olaniran has consulted for the African Development Bank, the World Bank and the private sector. He has worked in tree development, headed a science liaison office at ICIPE, Nairobi, and has served as Regional Minister for Agriculture in Ogun State, Nigeria.

Arnja is the Chief Scientific Officer at the RNZSPCA and sits on two statutory Ministerial Advisory Committees (Animal Welfare; Animal Ethics) as well as a number of other industry committees. She leads the Animal Welfare Science Team, Nationwide Education Team, and the ‘living side’ of SPCA Animal Welfare Certified. She works closely with Government and Industry to advocate for meaningful animal welfare improvement.

Eamonn Ives is currently the Head of Research at The Entrepreneurs Network, a think tank to promote entrepreneurship and innovation. He formerly served as Special Adviser to the COP26 President, the Rt Hon Alok Sharma MP, and prior to that worked on environmental policy for two other Westminster-based think tanks. Eamonn is a passionate environmentalist and animal welfare advocate – with a particular interest in advancing innovative and technological solutions to ending environmental problems. You can follow him on Twitter @eamonnives.

Stanley has worked in the field of environment and animal welfare for 40 years. As a Member of the European Parliament, he was Vice-Chairman of the Environment Committee and Founder-Chair of the All-Party Group on Animal Welfare. He has received awards from the RSPCA RSPB, WWF and Greenpeace for outstanding services to animal welfare and the environment respectively. He has written many books, the latest being Where the Wild Things Were: Travels of a Conservationist.

Carlo Petrini is the founder and President of the international Slow Food movement. Slow Food has over 100,000 members in 150 countries, all dedicated to small scale, sustainable food production. Carlo founded the University of Gastronomic Sciences and hosts a biennial Terra Madre conference in Turin. He has published several books on eco-gastronomy. Time magazine named him a Hero in 2004 and, in 2008, the Guardian named him one of “fifty people who could save the world”.