UN appoints German diplomat to lead biodiversity negotiations

By Samuel Ogunsona

The United Nations Secretary-General, António Guterres, has appointed Astrid Schomaker of Germany as the new Executive Secretary of the Secretariat of CBD.

Irohinoodua was informed that the appointment was after several consultations with the Bureau of the Conference of the Parties (COP), to the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD),

Guterres in his official announcement extends his profound gratitude to David Cooper of the United Kingdom, who is to continue as the acting Executive Secretary until Ms. Schomaker fully assumes duty.

Ms. Schomaker is a graduate of English and history studies who holds a law degree from Hamburg University, Germany, and also a Master Degree in International Legal Cooperation from the Free University of Brussels, Belgium.

She is fluent in English, French and German, and has some knowledge of Italian and Spanish.

Also, she is the Director for Global Sustainable Development in the European Commission’s Directorate General for Environment.

Ms. Schomaker has held a variety of posts in the areas of international relations and environment policy, amongst them leading the work on chemical policy, marine issues since she joined the commission in 1992.

She is expected to bring her extensive experience in international relations and negotiations, especially the global sustainable development agenda and multilateral environment agreements to her office.

Ms. Schomaker is expected to work with the Parties to the CBD as the world is ready to gather in Cali, Colombia, for the Sixteenth meeting of the Conference of the Parties (COP16) to the Convention on Biological Diversity.

The main focus areas of COP16 include: Land restoration and drought resilience.