ICEM Experts at Work:

ICEM experts facilitated the SEA planning workshop of the ADB Core Environment Program.

Expertise in Detail:

Jeremy Carew-Reid

Biodiversity conservation, protected areas, environmental policy and institutional development

Jeremy Carew-Reid is Director of ICEM and Chair of the ICEM Board. He has more than 30 years experience working in 28 countries in five regions of the world in institution building, strategic planning, environmental management, protected areas and biodiversity conservation. He holds a BSc (Honours) and PhD in Environmental Studies. Jeremy was Director of Global Conservation Services for IUCN – The World Conservation Union based in Switzerland, and prior to that, IUCN’s Country Representative in Nepal. He was the first director of SPREP, the South Pacific Regional Environment Program, a partnership of the 22 island countries of Oceania. He was Chief Technical Advisor to the Ministry of Planning and Investment in Vietnam and the National Planning Commission in Nepal in integrating environment with investment planning. Earlier, he was a senior project officer with the Australian Government National Parks and Wildlife Service. In the past five years, Jeremy has been Team Leader in more than 20 projects in Asia and participated as a technical specialist in many others. His work has ranged from site specific assessments and management planning in rural and urban settings, sector studies and institutional analysis and evaluation, through to integrated regional planning and policy development at local, national to international levels.

Jeremy has worked in the following regions and countries: SE Asia: Malaysia; Thailand; Vietnam; China; Cambodia; Lao PDR and regional programs, particularly relating to the Mekong region. South Asia: Nepal; Pakistan; Sri Lanka; Bangladesh; and regional programs. Africa: Kenya; Ethiopia; Zambia; Zimbabwe and regional programs. Latin America: Costa Rica, Argentina and regional programs. Oceania: Australia; Papua New Guinea; Solomon Islands; Vanuatu; New Caledonia; Fiji; Tonga; Western Samoa; Guam; Palua; Northern Marianas and regional programs. Europe: Switzerland; Spain and regional programs.

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David James

Natural resource economics

David James is an ICEM Board member. He has more than 30 years practical and research experience specialising in environmental and natural resource economics. He has conducted economic assessments and provided policy advice on forestry, fisheries, agriculture, drylands, catchments, riverine systems, coastal zones, energy systems, water and sewerage, solid waste, urban development, air and water pollution, and protected areas. David holds a BA Degree (1st Class Hons Economics), an MA (Economics) and a PhD (Economics). He is a United Nations Global 500 Award for his pioneering work in environmental impact assessment and natural resource management incorporating economic principles and a recipient of an East West Makana Team Award for his work in environmental economics.

Since 1988 David has served as Special Commissioner on the Australian Resource Assessment Commission’s Forest and Timber Inquiry, Member of the NSW Natural Resources Audit Council, Co-Chair of the NSW Economic and Social Technical Committee for the Regional Forestry Agreement Process, Independent Adviser to several Government Commissions of Inquiry, and Member of numerous governmental advisory committees. He is currently providing technical advice to the NSW Department of Infrastructure, Planning and Natural Resources relating to coastal management and strategic planning for regional development and natural resource management.

David has worked extensively in developing countries, including as ICEM Senior Economist on the Protected Areas and Development Review in the Mekong region. He serves as a Resource Person for the Economy and Environment Program for South-East Asia (EEPSEA), providing guidance and training to researchers throughout the region.

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Benoit Laplante

Environmental economics

Benoit Laplante’s main fields of expertise are environmental economics, environmental financing, economic instruments for pollution control, and cost-benefit analysis. Benoit has a Bachelor of Commerce, Master of Science (Economics), and a Ph.D. in Environmental Economics. He has worked on water management projects, testing economic and market-based instruments and changes to pricing and tariff policies. Benoit has developed operational, commercial, financial, and environmental performance indicators for water and wastewater utilities for benchmarking performance. He has designed public disclosure programs for industrial environmental performance and national and local environment and conservation funds, including the preparation of regulations and operational guidelines. He has extensive experience in economic analysis of environmental and social impacts of major projects and programs. Benoit has advised numerous governments on the design of environmental user fees and charges, and public disclosure programs.

He has worked for 15 years as an environmental economist in Armenia; the Baltic States of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania, China; Columbia; Ghana; and the Indian Ocean countries of Comorres, Madagascar, Mauritius and Seychelles. In recent years, Benoit has been particularly active in South East Asia, mainly Indonesia; Laos; Malaysia; Philippines; Thailand; and Viet Nam. Benoit serves as a Resource Person for the Economy and Environment Program for South-East Asia (EEPSEA), providing guidance to researchers throughout the region, and has conducted numerous training courses on specific topics in environmental economics and cost-benefit analysis. He regularly works to support the environmental economics activities of bilateral (including CIDA, DANIDA, the European Union, and USAID), and multilateral institutions (including the Asian Development Bank, the United Nations Development Program, the World Bank).

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Lothar Linde

Environmental assessment and monitoring, landscape ecology, remote sensing and GIS

Lothar holds a MSc degree in Geography and specialises in landscape ecology, and environmental assessment, analysis and management. Lothar also specializes in Remote Sensing, GIS and Geo-visualization. His technical experience includes studies on soil contamination, monitoring groundwater discharge patterns and assessment of degradation and rehabilitation processes in arid and semi-arid regions. Lothar gained extensive practical experience working at the Blaustein Institute of Desert Research in Israel in degradation prevention and ecosystem engineering. He has advanced skills in assessing vegetation and its degradation using IKONOS and QUICKBIRD imagery, per-pixel and object-oriented classification, and environmental analysis via landscape metrics.

Lothar worked for several years with the UNEP Regional Resource Centre for Asia and the Pacific in Bangkok. While there he conducted geospatial landscape assessment and analysis for the ADB Greater Mekong Subregion Biodiversity Conservation Corridors Initiative, the UNHCR environmental risk assessments and disaster prevention planning for refugee camps in Thailand; the land cover / land use analysis for the ADB Strategic Environmental Framework hotspots in the GMS and provided technical support to the UNEP Land Cover Monitoring of South-East Asia. Other assignments have included the World Bank / ICEM Country Environmental Analysis in Vietnam and the World Bank / ICEM Strategic Environmental Assessment of the hydropower sector in Vietnam. Currently, Lothar works as Environmental Assessment and GIS specialist for the Environment Operations Center in Bangkok.

Lothar has worked and liaised extensively both with governmental agencies as well as international organizations and NGOs in the Greater Mekong Subregion (Cambodia, Lao PDR, Myanmar, PR China, Thailand and Vietnam). Further regions of work experience include The Middle East (Israel, Jordan), Europe (Germany, Denmark) and South America (Argentina, Chile).

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Jiri Dusik

Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) and Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA)

Jiri Dusik has 15 years of experience with environmental impact assessment (EIA) and strategic environmental assessment (SEA). He specializes in integration of SEA into regional development planning, land-use planning and socio-economic planning.

Jiri holds a Degree in Water Resource Engineering from the Czech Technical University. After working as an editor of the Czech National EIA Newsletter, he moved to the Regional Environmental Center for Central and Eastern Europe where he managed the Sofia EIA Initiative - a large regional programme launched by the third Ministerial Conference "Environment for Europe" to facilitate SEA reforms in Central and Eastern Europe. Through this programme he contributed to the development of 3 national SEA guidelines, implementation of 23 SEAs pilot projects and to 8 capacity development initiatives in 14 countries of Central and Eastern Europe and former Soviet Union.

In 2001-2003, Jiri headed the Czech delegation for the negotiations on the UNECE SEA Protocol to the Espoo Convention. He co-authored a Resource Manual for the Practical Application of the SEA Protocol. He is a lead author of a SEA Handbook for European Union’s Cohesion Policy in 2007-2013. He was a core team member for the UNEP Integrated Assessment and Planning for Sustainable Development Initiative (2003-2005).

More recently Jiri has worked in Asia on an international study on SEA (2002) in Japan, and on SEA training programs in Thailand (2003) and China (2004, 2006). At present, he is the EIA/SEA Advisor to the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment in Vietnam through the SEMLA programme on environment and land administration.

Jiri served on the Board of Directors of the International Association of Impact Assessment (2003-2006) and co-chaired the first global IAIA conference on SEA (International experience and perspectives in SEA) in Prague, 2005.

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Nguyen Xuan Nguyen

Economics, development policy and sustainable financing

Nguyen Xuan Nguyen is the ICEM Vietnam National Project Manager. He has a PhD and MA in Development Economics. For 20 years, he was a senior official with the Central Institute for Economic Management in Vietnam, then was nominated to work as deputy director for Economic Secretariat of Central Executive Committee of Government. From 2002-5 he worked as a consultant on projects concerned with trade liberalization, agricultural planning and management, micro finance, community development, poverty alleviation and environment protection. He has specialized in services for economic development in Vietnam, including renovation planning, land reform and rural financing. In recent years, Nguyen has expanded his field to institutional and policy analysis, capacity building, environment protection, and natural disaster mitigation. He has participated in assessing and preparing projects such as Vietnam Conservation Fund for forest sector (2000), Integrated Coastal Zone Management for Vietnam (2003), Contingency Fund for Natural Disaster Mitigation (2004), Protected Areas Policy Analysis (2005), Country Environment Analysis (2006) and other short term consultation services promoting sustainable use of natural resources and environmental quality. He has extensive experience and networks from working with NGOs, international organizations and government institution.

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Bruce Dunn

Environmental assessment and biodiversity management

Bruce Dunn is the ICEM Asia Program Coordinator. He is an ecologist and environmental scientist specializing in environmental impact assessment (EIA), strategic environmental assessment (SEA) and biodiversity conservation. Bruce holds a BSc in Environmental Science (First Class Honors). For six years to 2002, Bruce worked on a range of environmental studies with the University of Queensland, Queensland Department of Environment and Heritage, and the Rainforest Cooperative Research Centre in Australia. This included biodiversity inventories in protected areas; mixed species forestry trials; threatened mammal species reintroductions; and water quality and catchment management assessments. As a consultant for a number of Australian based consulting firms he has also conducted flora and fauna surveys, prepared EIAs, developed threatened species and vegetation management plans, and designed forest rehabilitation plans.

Since 2003, Bruce has worked extensively in Vietnam and within the Greater Mekong Subregion (GMS). This has involved work in protected areas management and support to a range of donor funded capacity building programs on EIA and SEA. Highlights have included: the development of a “Framework for Donor Coordination on SEA in Vietnam”(with the Ministry of Natural Resources & Environment and GTZ); coordination and management of SEAs for socio-economic development plans in Vinh Phuc and Tuyen Quang Provinces (with GTZ); an SEA of the “Quang Nam Hydropower Development Plan (with ADB); support to the Ministry of Construction to develop “Guidelines for SEA and EIA for Urban Construction Planning in Vietnam” (with DANIDA); and support to the ADB funded GMS Core Environment Program component on “SEA of GMS Economic Corridors and Priority Sectors”. In addition Bruce has contributed to the development of a “National Training Program for SEA in Vietnam” and has facilitated numerous training events on environmental assessment through work with GTZ, ADB, World Bank and DANIDA.

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Mark Halle

International environmental policy, trade and financing

Mark Halle is an ICEM Board Member. He is the director of the International Institute for Sustainable Development's (IISD) office in Europe, and also of its global program on Trade and Investment. A joint citizen of the United States and Italy, he spent the bulk of his career in international environmental affairs. He began as a Program Officer in the Policy Planning Unit of the United Nations Environment Program, moving to the World Wildlife Fund - International, responsible for its program in China. He then helped to establish the Conservation for Development Centre in IUCN - the World Conservation Union, moving on to become, successively, the Director of Field Operations, the Director of Development, and finally the Director for Global Policy and Partnerships in IUCN. He left IUCN in 1997 to set up the IISD Office in Europe. He is also the founder and first Chairman of the International Centre for Trade and Sustainable Development, and sits on a wide range of boards and advisory committees for trade-related organizations in Europe, Asia, Latin America and Australia. He frequently lectures and publishes on trade, investment and environmental issues.

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Tran Nguyen Anh Thu

Natural resources and environmental management

Anh Thu has worked in development assistance programs and project management in Vietnam for over 20 years with a special focus on natural resources management, forestry, protected areas, environmental management, sustainable development, and disaster prevention and reduction. Anh Thu trained as an Engineer of Wood Technology and holds a Master of Environmental Management and Development from the Australian National University. She worked in the former Ministry of Forestry of Viet Nam and the United Nations Development Programme in Ha Noi, where she served as focal point for Sustainable Development, the Global Environmental Facility (GEF) and Disaster Management.

Anh Thu has worked as an associate for the World Bank Bank Training Center/IFC, deputy team leader of a joint mid-term review mission on the Forest Sector Support Program and Partnership and Trust Funds for Forestry (2006), a biodiversity specialist on GEF review missions and a national consultant in developing a Sustainable Development Facility in Viet Nam. She has worked on a wide range of environmental studies such as the World Bank's Country Environmental Analysis and WB and ADB Strategic Environmental Assessments. Anh Thu has extensive experience and networks with government organizations, international development community and NGOs.

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Nicole Baker

ICEM Island Program Coordinator

Nicole Baker’s expertise is in the participatory processes, institutional arrangements and management systems that support implementation of environment and conservation policy. Nicole trained and worked for five years as a chemical engineer in the private sector, then as a management consultant for local and state government and companies in Australia including Australia Post, the dairy industry and various manufacturing industries. Over the past five years she has taken her private sector and government experience as a management systems expert and engineer into environmental management and biodiversity conservation with special focus on the challenges of small island states. She has also worked in Asia, particularly Vietnam where recently she led a WWF project to develop monitoring and evaluation systems to integrate environmental concerns into development decision-making. In the Marshall Islands, Nicole is currently facilitating the nomination of two World Heritage sites, and is also leading the development of a national approach to protected area planning and management in the Marshalls supported by the Australian Regional Natural Heritage Program.

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