Curriculum Vitae Graham Bennett
Personal Information
Full name: Graham Bennett
Born: 30 March 1948, London, United Kingdom
Nationality: Dutch
Domicile: The Netherlands
Academic Qualifications
1981 PhD Environmental Sciences (University of East Anglia, United Kingdom)
1977 BSc Environmental Sciences (University of East Anglia)
Employment
1999-present Director, Syzygy
1997-1999 Director European Affairs, AIDEnvironment
1989-1996 Director, Institute for European Environmental Policy, the Netherlands
1983-1988 Senior Research Fellow, Institute for European Environmental Policy
1980-1982 Associate, Department of Environmental Science, University of Nijmegen
Experience
Graham Bennett has been actively involved in the analysis and development of international environmental policy, biodiversity conservation and natural resource management for over 30 years. His work has covered all the member states of the European Union and countries in Eastern Europe, North America, Latin America, Africa and Asia. He has acted as consultant to the European Commission on over twenty projects, and also to the European Parliament, the Council of Europe, the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, the Convention on Biological Diversity and governments and other organisations in Europe, the United States, Japan, China and South Korea. These studies have focused on the following topics:
- biodiversity conservation, especially relating to the development of ecological networks, green infrastructure and the implementation of Natura 2000
- EU environmental policy, including the implementation of over fifty environmental directives in the EU member states
- climate change adaptation
- water management
- agriculture and the environment
- spatial planning and the environment
In 1991 Graham Bennett published the first proposal for a European Ecological Network (EECONET). This evolved into the Pan-European Ecological Network that in 1995 was endorsed by over 50 countries as part of the Pan-European Biological and Landscape Diversity Strategy.
From 1994 to 2000 he was a member of the Dutch government’s Advisory Council for Research on Spatial Planning, Nature and the Environment (RMNO).
In 2003 he conceived and developed, together with IUCN, the Countdown 2010, a civil society partnership aimed at supporting the international commitment to halt the loss of biodiversity by 2010. The initiative gained the support of over a thousand partners worldwide (see http://countdown2010.net/).
Graham Bennett is currently Focal Point in the Netherlands for IUCN’s World Commission on Protected Areas and a board member of the IUCN National Committee of the Netherlands.
Finally, although it has nothing to do with environmental issues, his book Soft Machine: Out Bloody Rageous won a 2006 Award for Excellence in Historical Recorded Sound Research from the Association for Recorded Sound Collections.
A full curriculum vitae is available on request.
Contact Graham Bennett directly at: bennett@syzygy.nl