Chris Tydeman

"Chris Tydeman is Chairman of UKOTCF. He was Chair of Trustees of the Herpetological Conservation Trust until 2009 when it morphed into Amphibian and Reptile Conservation and became its Treasurer. He is an independent consultant dealing with both environment and development issues, specialising particularly in recent years in wetlands management, water supply and sanitation, biodiversity strategies and climate change. He left WWF-UK as Chief Scientist, having spent 23 spent years there, with secondments to the WWF European Programme and WWF International, before becoming a consultant in 2001. At WWF he was responsible for the UK Conservation Programme, which included providing financial and staff support to the UKOTCF, as well as Programmes on Freshwater, Marine and Toxic Chemicals.

"Chris has extensive policy experience at national, European and international levels with government, intergovernmental organisations and NGOs and has held a number of representative positions. These include being on the UK Secretary of State's Advisory Committee for the Convention on Biological Diversity; UK Government advisory groups on otters and coastal management; both the Standing Committee and the Scientific and Technical Review Panel of the Convention on Wetlands (Ramsar Convention); acting as Northern cochair of the UN Freshwater Caucus and representing NGOs at the World Water Forum in the Hague in 2000, including at the Senior Officials meetings; as head of the WWF delegation at a number of international and intergovernmental meetings including the North Sea Ministerial Conference; on the Standing Committee of European Convention on the Conservation of European Wildlife and Natural Habitats; and as chair of numerous NGO bodies. He is currently a member of the EU Water Initiative Coordination Group and a number of its working groups and as a consultant is implementing the EUWI Communications Strategy. Recent assignments have included work for major ngos in the development sector such as Water Aid, Tearfund and Oxfam as well as international conservation ngos such as Birdlife, WWF, Wetlands International and Conservation International. He is Senior Councillor for APCO Worldwide, a global public affairs company, providing advice on Corporate and Social Responsibility mainly on environmental issues."