The Ramsar Photo Gallery

The Staff of the Ramsar Convention Bureau

Guangchun Lei

Senior Advisor for Asia

China; joined the Bureau in 2003

Following completion of his bachelor's and master's degrees in Forest Protection at Central South Forestry University in China, Dr Lei served from 1988 to 1993 as Chief of the Division of Nature Reserve Management in the Forest Department of Hunan Province, overseeing some 31 protected areas amongst which, the famous Dongting Lake, was one of China's first Ramsar sites upon its accession to the Convention in 1992. He earned his Ph.D in Ecology in 1997 after four years of study at the University of Helsinki in Finland, and since 1999 has served both as a Professor in the Department of Ecology and Environmental Biology in Peking University and as Yangtze Programme Leader with the WWF China Programme, and most recently as Director of the Freshwater & Marine Programme, WWF China Programme.

Launch of Wetland Ambassadors for the Mekong, May 2004

With the departing Secretary General, July 2003

Malaysia, July 2003

Guangchen with the Secretary General during his "baptism of fire", Ramsar COP8 in Spain in November 2002, before joining the Bureau officially in February 2003.

For further information about the Convention on Wetlands, please contact the Ramsar Convention Secretariat, Rue Mauverney 28, CH-1196 Gland, Switzerland (tel +41 22 999 0170, fax +41 22 999 0169, e-mail ramsar@ramsar.org). Posted 20 February 2003, updated 23 June 2004, Dwight Peck, Ramsar.