The Staff of the Ramsar Convention Secretariat

Anada Tiéga

Secretary General

A citizen of Niger, Mr Tiéga earned his BS degree from the University of Niamey and his MS degree in Forest Watershed Management from the University of Arizona (USA). He has many years' experience in working with wetland conservation and sustainable use both at local level and internationally, and he has a strong record of successful work in coordinating large groups of government officials, donors, regional collaborative commissions, non-governmental environmental organizations, and field scientists and practitioners. He served for some years in the environmental administration of Niger, including as National Director of Wildlife and Fisheries in the late 1980s, following which he became Niger's Country Representative for The World Conservation Union (IUCN). In the mid-1990s, he served as IUCN's Regional Coordinator for West Africa.

In 1998, Mr Tiéga became Regional Coordinator for Africa for the Ramsar Convention at its headquarters in Gland, Switzerland, and in his nearly six years with the Ramsar Secretariat he built productive relationships with the authorities and organizations in the Africa region, thoroughly learned the workings of the Convention at the global level as well, and gained a strong sense of how the Secretariat works and what the Parties and the public expect from it. Most recently he has been serving, since 2003, as the Project Manager for the Lake Chad Basin GEF project on "Reversal of Land and Water Degradation Trends in the Lake Chad Basin Ecosystem", based in N'Djamena, Chad, a position in which he has collaborated closely with the Lake Chad Basin Commission, the World Bank, the UNDP, the UN Office of Project Services, and the regional governments, and in which he has gained a great deal of experience in fundraising, capacity development, stakeholder engagement, and staff and budget management.

The Regional Coordinator on mission (Garoua airport, Cameroon, 2000). (Photo: Denis Landenbergue, WWF)

photo November 1998

At left, at the head table of the Pan-African Regional meeting in Kampala, June 1998, with Minister Kajura and Secretary General Blasco.

With the Bureau's Bill Phillips in Dakar, Senegal, November 1998

Entertaining the media in Niger, November 1998

At Ramsar COP7, Costa Rica, May 1999

M. Tiéga on mission on the Albarkaïzé floodplain (March 2001), a proposed Ramsar site in Niger, reportedly seriously anxious that the little boatie thing was preparing to let him down. (Photo: Denis Landenbergue, WWF)

Relieved after having survived the Albarkaïzé floodplain adventure, celebrating with delegates from the WWF Living Waters Campaign and a welcome beverage with the label askew.  (Photo: Denis Landenbergue, WWF)

At STRP 10 with Ramsar's Valerie Higgins and Parastu Mirabzadeh of the CBD secretariat, June 2001.