Abou Bamba

Abou Bamba is the Chair of the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification COP15 Organizing Committee.

Since March 2010 he has been the Regional Coordinator of the UNEP-Administered Convention for Cooperation in the Protection, Management and Development of the Marine and Coastal Environment of the Atlantic Coast of the West, Central and Southern African Region (Abidjan Convention, 1981), which brings together 22 African coastal countries.

From 2003 to 2010, he served as Africa Region Coordinator at the Secretariat of the Ramsar Convention on Wetlands, Gland, Switzerland.

From 1994 to 2000 he was Technical Advisor at the World Bank, within the framework of National Environmental Action Plans (NEAP) in Sub-Saharan Africa, with the Network for Environment and Sustainable Development in Africa (NESDA); and from 2000 to 2003 Coordinator of the same Network at the African Development Bank (AfDB).

He was a consultant for the Ford Foundation in New York; Chemonics International Inc., Washington, D.C.; and the International Development Research Centre (IDRC, Ottawa, Canada). He has published several studies on environmental issues in Africa.

He has received several academic awards and honors. These include the Excellency Award of the University of Quebec, the Excellency Award of the Ministry of Science and Higher Education of the Government of Quebec, the Bourse de la Francophonie and a Hewlett Packard grant.

Abou Bamba holds an undergraduate degree in Ports and Maritime Administration; a Master of Science in Economics and Management (major: environmental and ocean economics) from the University Quebec at Rimouski, Canada; a diploma in Sustainable Management of the Environment from the University of California at Berkeley, United States; and several certificates in the political economy of the environment from the World Bank Economic Development Institute, Washington D.C., USA.

He has 28 years of experience in various aspects of the environmental sector such as environmentally sustainable development, linking poverty reduction and environment conservation, terrestrial ecosystems management, integrated management of marine resources, green/blue economy, wise use of wetlands, integrated water management, climate change, mitigation, adaptation, and resiliency.

Abou Bamba, a citizen of Cote d’Ivoire, speaks Mandingo, French, English and Spanish.