Dr. Tewolde Berhan Gebre Egziabher is Director General of the
Ethiopian Environmental Protection Authority and Councillor at the
World Future Council.
He received his PhD in 1969 and is Ethiopia’s first plant ecologist. Most of his working life has been in academia, and he has been the Dean of Science at
Addis Ababa University and President of
Asmara University.
He also served as Director of the
Ethiopian Conservation Strategy Secretariat.
During the 1990s Dr. Egziabher put much of his energy into negotiations at the various biodiversity-related fora, especially the
Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) and the
FAO. During this time, he built up a strong group of well-prepared African negotiators who began to take the lead in the
G77 and China Group. Africa came out with united, progressive positions such as no patents on living materials and the recognition of community rights.