Rahul Chand as Fiji’s Delegation lead at the 2nd session of the Intergovernmental Platform for Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES) in Bonn- Germany 2014

Rahul is an environmental specialist in biodiversity conservation, planning, and policy implementation. Rahul has over 15 years of experience working in Government and non-government organizations, particularly in implementing biodiversity strategies and action plans. He worked as the Programme Coordinator for National Biodiversity Strategy and Action Plans (NBSAP) at the Department for Environment in Fiji, implemented by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), before taking up the position as the Senior Environment Officer managing Fiji’s Global Environment Facility (GEF) projects on the thematic areas: biodiversity, climate change, and land degradation.

As the NBSAP Coordinator, Rahul primarily worked on the accession of the Nagoya Protocol by Fiji, building national capacities on Access to Genetic Resources and Benefit-sharing under the Protocol and providing support to the Biosafety (products that are genetically modified) program of the Government of Fiji under the Cartagena Protocol.

As senior environmental conservation, planning, and policy support officer in Government, Rahul represented Fiji in many High-Level intergovernmental negotiations on protection, preservation, conservation, and sustainable development. He was Fiji’s representative at the Intergovernmental Platform for Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES), an intergovernmental agency established by a United Nations General Assembly Resolution equivalent to the IPCC of Climate Change.

In 2014 Rahul was included as a technical expert in the Fiji delegation at the Conference of the Parties (COP) for the Convention of Biological Diversity in Korea, followed by CBD COP in 2016 as Fiji’s Head of Delegation. Rahul was an alternate COP-MOP (NP) Bureau Member nominated by the Pacific Island Countries at the 11th Joint Plenary Meeting. As Senior Environment Officer for GEF programs, Rahul attended numerous regional and international meetings with the donor sector, including the GEF Council Meeting in 2016 in Washington, DC, representing the Pacific Constituency nominated by the Fiji Government.

Rahul left Government in 2017 upon his appointment as the Capacity Building Officer on ABS (Nagoya Protocol) for the Pacific Islands Countries based at the Secretariat of the Pacific Regional Environment Programme in Apia – Samoa. While working for United Nations Environment Programme, implementing the project at SPREP on ABS, Rahul conducted several workshops, consultations, and meetings. He held one-to-one discussions with policymakers in the fourteen Pacific Island countries. His idea and brainchild of the Pacific’s inaugural conference on Traditional Knowledge and Sustainable Development Goals of the Pacific was a massive success after several months of lockdowns in many countries, the first big regional meeting of the kind to be held in Suva, Fiji. He has authored many technical reports and papers, the most recent at SPREP on the ” Lessons from the Pacific in implementation of the Nagoya Protocol.” While working in the Pacific, he was nominated by the Government of Tuvalu to the Advisory Committee on Capacity Building to the Nagoya Protocol and was elected as the Chair of the Committee, the first from the Pacific region for an international expert committee that feeds into the larger CBD Plenary through its reports.

Rahul joined the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Oceania’s regional office in Suva to take the appointment as the Coordinator of the Protected Areas and Conservation Programme in October 2022. He has a Master’s in Environmental Law (University of the South Pacific), Post Graduate Diploma in Climate change (University of the South Pacific), a Bachelor of Applied Science in environmental studies from (Auckland University of Technology) and a Diploma in Environmental Science from Fiji National University. Rahul is a certified project management specialist from Project Management Institute – the world’s leading project management certification. He is also a member of the Environment Institute of Australia a