The Ramsar Photo Gallery

The Staff of the Ramsar Convention / MedWet Secretariat

Spyros Kouvelis

MedWet Coordinator

Greece; joined the MedWet Coordination Unit in Athens, Greece, in June 2001

Spyros Kouvelis was born in Athens Greece in 1964. He holds a BSc in Economics from the University of Athens and an MSc in Agricultural/ Environmental Economics from the University of Reading in the UK. He has worked extensively with the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) since 1991 and as Acting Chief Executive Officer of WWF Greece from 1995 to 1997. Member of the agriculture and European policy teams of WWF International, and chair of the WWF Mediterranean Team. From 1997 to 2000 he worked as an Athens-based consultant to the WWF European Policy Office. In 1997 he was appointed Advisor to the Deputy Minister in the Ministry of Environment, Planning and Public Works of Greece, where he worked until 2001. Since 2001, he holds the position of MedWet Coordinator, directing the MedWet Coordination Unit in Athens, a Ramsar outposted unit responsible for the coordination of the Mediterranean Wetlands initiative. MedWet covers all 25 Mediterranean countries, 4 wetland centres and 4 international NGOs, and collaborates closely with other international organisations and initiatives, including the Mediterranean Action Plan of UNEP and GWP-Med. He is fluent in Greek, English and French.

Addressing the 4th Pan-European Ramsar meeting, October 2001.

At the Standing Committee's 26th meeting, December 2001.

A study in exuberance: Chris Tydeman, Spyros Kouvelis, Standing Committee Subgroup meetings, May 2002.

Basking at Ramsar COP8, Valencia, Spain, November 2002.

The MedWet Coordinator (right) with the full staff of the MW-CU and the Special Advisor to the Secretary General, in the garden of Villa Kazouli where the Coordination Unit is hosted, September 2002.

Nejib Benessaiah, Angela Kyriazis, Maria Anagnostopoulou, Thymio Papayannis, Spyros Kouvelis

For further information about the Ramsar Convention, please contact the Ramsar Convention Bureau, Rue Mauverney 28, CH-1196 Gland, Switzerland (tel +41 22 999 0170, fax +41 22 999 0169, e-mail ). Posted 6 September 2001, updated 31 January 2003, Dwight Peck, Ramsar.