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Jerker Tamelander

Director, Science and Policy

Jerker has joined the Secretariat in April 2021. His has strong expertise in conservation of marine and coastal wetlands, climate change and sustainable development. He has worked on scientific, technical and policy aspects and has considerable experience in intergovernmental processes.

Jerker has worked over the past ten years with the UN Environment Programme (UNEP), most recently as Coordinator of the Secretariat of the Coordinating Body on the Seas of East Asia (COBSEA), a regional intergovernmental body for protection and sustainable development of the coastal and marine environment. Prior to that he served as Head of UNEP’s Coral Reef Unit, developing and leading a multi-stakeholder partnership for ecosystem-based management.

He started his career as a researcher at the Finnish Institute of Marine Research, and joined UNEP in 1999. Between 2004 and 2011 he worked with IUCN, as Coordinator of the Regional Marine Programme for Asia and later as Manager, Oceans and Climate Change in the IUCN Global Marine and Polar Programme.

Jerker holds a Master of Science in Marine Biology from University of Gothenburg, Sweden.