Dr. Rosina Bierbaum, the STAP Chair, is pleased to announce the appointment of Dr. Ermias Betemariam as the new Panel Member for Land Degradation. Effective June 1, 2024.
Dr. Betemariam, an Ethiopian national, brings a unique set of qualifications to his role as a land health scientist at the Center for International Forestry Research and World Agroforestry in Nairobi, Kenya. His research, which spans soil health, agroforestry, landscape restoration, spatial sciences, and decision analysis, is instrumental in understanding land health constraints and improving land and agricultural productivity.
Dr. Betemariam contributes to the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES), working on the scoping report for a thematic assessment of the underlying causes of biodiversity loss, the determinants of transformative change and options for achieving the 2050 Vision for Biodiversity.
He is also the Deputy Coordinator for IUFRO Resource Data in the Tropics and an Adjunct Professor at Addis Ababa University, Ethiopia. He has been a member of the Science-Policy Interface (SPI) of the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD).
Dr. Bierbaum noted that Ermias's wealth of crosscutting knowledge and experience working with communities in Africa on landscape issues, as well as involvement in global processes such as IPBES and UNCCD SPI, will benefit STAP in providing scientific and technical advice to the GEF.
Dr. Betemariam holds a BSc. in Forestry (Alemaya University, Ethiopia), an M.Sc. in Geoinformation Sciences and Earth observation (University of Twente, Netherlands), and a Ph.D. in Ecology and Natural Resources (University of Bonn, Germany).
