Dr Nick Davidson named new Deputy Secretary General
The Secretary General is very pleased to announce that Dr Nick Davidson has accepted the Bureaus invitation to become the Ramsar Conventions new Deputy Secretary General, initially a three-year appointment to begin in about February 2000 in replacement of Dr Bill Phillips of Australia. He was selected from several outstanding candidates in a search process that included the Chair and Vice-Chair of the Standing Committee and the Chair of the SCs Subgroup on Finance, among others.
Nick Davidson at Ramsar COP7, May 1999 (Photo: Andrei Henry, Earth Negotiations Bulletin)
Dr Davidson is a citizen of the UK and presently employed by English Nature whilst serving on secondment as Science Coordinator for the International Coordination Unit of Wetlands International, based in Wageningen, The Netherlands. Prior to that he has been associated with the Nature Conservancy Council in Peterborough, UK, and with the Department of Zoology of the University of Durham, and from 1991 to 1997 as Head of the Coastal Review Unit and then as Communications Manager with JNCC, the Joint Nature Conservation Committee in the UK. He has a BSc Hons. in Zoology from the University of Aberdeen and a PhD, also in Zoology, from the University of Durham.
Dr Davidson has produced over 100 scientific papers, book chapters, and reports, mostly on coastal ecology and conservation, migratory waterfowl ecology and flyway conservation. Most recently his research interests have been with inventory and assessment of estuarine and coastal resources; development of international waterbird flyway conservation; conservation and habitat creation on estuaries; ecophysiology of estuarine birds; and migration and breeding ecology of arctic waders. He also has strong research interests in wetland restoration, wetland inventory, and identification of wetlands of international importance. He has a lively interest in world current affairs and especially in how global pressures influence the sustainable use of natural resources. He has considerable experience in communications management and in designing major information-transfer products for decision-makers and multi-sectoral stakeholders. He formerly acted as Coordinator of Wetlands Internationals Wader Specialist Group, and since joining Wetlands International he has had responsibility for developing and expanding the whole network of presently 20 wetland and waterbird Specialist Groups.
Especially since coming to Wetlands International in 1997, Dr Davidson has had very thorough experience with the Ramsar Convention and its family of collaborators throughout the world, and he has already made many significant contributions to Ramsar meetings and programmes.
The staff of the Ramsar secretariat welcomes Dr Davidson to the Bureau and looks forward to working with him in the future.