Valerie Kapos is Principal Specialist in Nature-based Solutions at UNEP-WCMC. She helps to provide strategic direction for the Centre’s work on the role of ecosystems in climate change adaptation and mitigation, and in health and well-being, and leads its programme of work on ecosystem-based adaptation (EbA). Ryan Bartlett is Director, Climate Smart Planning and Design for WWF in the United States. He provides technical support to WWF programs and projects around the world to better understand and integrate climate risks and NbS for adaptation in spatial planning, for both conservation and sustainable infrastructure.

Valerie Kapos is Principal Specialist in Nature-based Solutions at UNEP-WCMC. She helps to provide strategic direction for the Centre’s work on the role of ecosystems in climate change adaptation and mitigation, and in health and well-being, and leads its programme of work on ecosystem-based adaptation (EbA).

Ryan Bartlett is Director, Climate Smart Planning and Design for WWF in the United States. He provides technical support to WWF programs and projects around the world to better understand and integrate climate risks and NbS for adaptation in spatial planning, for both conservation and sustainable infrastructure.

Farai Kapfudzaruwa is the Deputy Director for Team Science at ASCEND at the University of Cape Town (UCT). He is responsible for core strategic functions related to team science leadership and facilitation for the synthesis teams, as well as providing postdoctoral fellowship supervision and team science capacity strengthening.

Liveness Banda is an Associate Professor in Animal Physiology at Lilongwe University of Agriculture and Natural Resources (LUANAR) where she has been working since 2002. Her research interests are in food systems with focus on livestock and crops in relation to farming systems for efficient and sustainable production systems and socio-economic development.

Melanie Murcott is an Associate Professor of law in the Institute of Marine and Environmental Law at UCT. Melanie practised as an attorney, including at Hogan Lovells (South Africa) where she was a partner. From 2012 to 2023, Melanie taught and engaged in research at the University of Pretoria. Among other accomplishments, she authored Transformative Environmental Constitutionalism (Brill, 2022), a significant monograph which develops a novel approach to the adjudication of disputes concerning environmental protection, given that we face a planetary crisis with myriad justice implications.

Edmond Totin from Benin is a social scientist with expertise in managing agricultural innovation, climate adaptation, and governance. He has extensive experience in climate change and food security in Africa. Edmond believes research outcomes can only be valuable if they make sense to people and are translated into actions. Edmond was Coordinating Lead Author on the IPCC AR6 Africa Chapter and is Associate Editor for the Climate & Development Journal.

Christopher Trisos is the Director of ASCEND and the Climate Risk Lab at the University of Cape Town. Christopher is a coordinating lead author on the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change 6th Assessment Report, responsible for Chapter 9 of Working Group II, African Climate Change Impacts, Adaptation and Vulnerability. He has also consulted on climate change adaptation for the World Bank. Dr Trisos spent three years as a postdoctoral fellow at the National Socio-Environmental Synthesis Center at University of Maryland, where his research focused on biodiversity and climate change.

Farai Kapfudzaruwa is the Deputy Director for Team Science at ASCEND at the University of Cape Town (UCT) in South Africa. He is responsible for core strategic functions related to team science leadership and facilitation for the synthesis teams, as well as providing postdoctoral fellowship supervision and team science capacity strengthening. His area of expertise is in climate change change governance, sustainable development and research development. He worked with multilateral institutions including the United Nations University (UNU) and UNDESA, as well as higher education institutions in Africa and the Asia Pacific to support the implementation of the SDGS.