Bonn,
12 March 2013 - The UNEP/AEWA Secretariat warmly welcomes
Dr. Bradnee Chambers who has entered on duty as the new
Executive Secretary of the Convention on Migratory Species
(CMS).
He succeeds Ms. Elizabeth Maruma Mrema who took up her new
post at the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP)
Headquarters in January 2012. Prior to his appointment,
Dr. Chambers headed the Law and Governance Branch of the
Division of Environmental Law and Conventions at UNEP Headquarters
in Nairobi.

Dr. Chambers has worked in various capacities
in UNEP including as Senior Legal Officer and Head of Policy
and Synergies between Multilateral Environmental Agreements.
The last few years he led the UNEP Secretariat in the Nairobi-Helsinki
Ministerial Consultative Process on International Governance
and at the Rio+10 Summit which led to the upgrading and
strengthening of UNEP in the outcome document “The
Future We Want”.

He has co-chaired, with the Convention
on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna
and Flora (CITES),
the Multilateral Environmental Agreement (MEA) Information
and Knowledge Management Initiative (IKM) - a collaborative
platform that brings together 40 global and regional agreements
from 14 secretariats hosted by 4 different UN organizations
and the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN).
The CMS and AEWA Secretariats actively participate in the
Initiative which develops harmonized and interoperable information
systems for the benefit of Parties and the environment community
at large. A main focus of CMS is the Online Reporting System
for MEAs, which has been developed by UNEP-WCMC and successfully
used by AEWA in 2012.

Dr. Chamber’s relevant experience
in examining the efficacy of Multilateral Environmental
Agreements (MEAs) will be a most valuable asset for the
UNEP/CMS Secretariat. He has published widely on the topic
and in his publication “Interlinkages and the Effectiveness
of MEAs” (2008) he developed a framework for measuring
the effectiveness of MEAs, and showed how the effectiveness
of MEAs can be improved through greater synergies and interlinkages
between them.

Dr. Chambers contributed to various key
UNEP publications such as the “Human Rights and the
Environment OHCHR-UNEP Joint Report (2012)” and “Measuring
Progress: Environmental Goals & Gaps” (2012) which
were both launched at the Rio+20 Summit. He was also a convening
lead author in the landmark Millennium Ecosystem Assessment
and Global Environmental Outlook 4 (GEO4), and a lead author
in the Near-term Climate Protection and Clean Air Benefits
assessment.

During his academic career he was a Senior
Legal Research Fellow at the Centre for International Sustainable
Development Law at McGill University in Montreal, Canada
and a visiting professor at the University of Tokyo and
Chuo University. From 1996-2008, Dr. Chambers worked for
the United Nations University Institute of Advanced Studies
(UNU-IAS) in Tokyo, where he served in various capacities
including as the Institute’s Legal Advisor, Senior
Researcher and Head of its Sustainable Development Governance
Programme.

From 1994-1995, he worked at the Transnational
Corporation Division of UNCTAD (Geneva), developing transparency
rules governing investment in developing countries in Asia.
He participated in numerous diplomatic, academic and international
conferences, including Conferences of the Parties and Subsidiary
Body Meetings for UNFCCC and CBD, WTO ministerial meetings,
the Commission on Sustainable Development and as a representative
in the UN Environment Management Group.

The Convention will greatly benefit from
the comprehensive professional and academic experience that
Dr. Chambers brings.