IME

The Nature Conservancy

(College 4 - Civil Society and water users organizations)

About the organization

 

 With regard to water, we have expertise and project activities on: environmental flows, sustainable hydropower, water certification, water funds, sustainable water tariffs, freshwater/coastal management, protected areas and freshwater conservation, floodplains management, great river conservation (e.g., Yangtze, Mississippi, Zambezi), removal of invasive species, and tools and technologies (e.g., river basin modeling, ecological limits of hydrologic alteration, freshwater gap analysis).

About the Governor representative

 

Karin KRCHNAK

As an environmental lawyer, Ms. Krchnak has worked to improve policies and procedures related to environmental management and resource conservation worldwide.  As a Senior Advisor in the External Affairs Department of TNC, she advises on the development of policy strategies with national governments, multilateral institutions, river basin organizations and other partners. Her areas of focus include river basin conservation, payment for environmental services in the water sector, water and energy infrastructure development (hydropower), and watershed protection. Before joining TNC, as the World Resource Institute’s Director of the Access Initiative & the Partnership for Principle 10, Ms. Krchnak managed two global secretariats aimed at improving information disclosure, transparency and accountability in environmental decision-making. Prior to WRI, Ms. Krchnak has worked as the Population & Environment Program Manager in the National Wildlife Federation’s International Programs, as well as Director for the Western Newly Independent States and Director of the Environmental Law Program for the American Bar Association Central and Eastern European Law Initiative. In addition, she has worked as an environmental attorney for Science Applications International Corporation and the Environmental Law Institute, and as an editor for the East Asian Legal Studies Program at the University of Maryland School of Law.  Ms. Krchnak received her B.A. in Political Science from Duke University and her J.D. from the University of Maryland School of Law.  She has published extensively in the area of international environmental policy and sustainable development, particularly on freshwater issues.  She has served on the Steering Committees of the Global Water Partnership and the Gender & Water Alliance. She is Co-Chair of the UN Commission on Sustainable Development’s Freshwater Caucus. Ms. Krchnak has also served as Adjunct Faculty at the University of Maryland School of Law.

About the Alternate representative

 

Andrew Deutz 

Dr. Andrew Deutz has extensive experience in international environmental law, policy and negotiation, as well as international conservation and development.  He currently directs The Nature Conservancy’s International Government Relations Department, overseeing TNC’s international policy work on climate change, marine, freshwater and protected areas conservation, as well as overseeing TNC’s relationship management teams with bilateral and multilateral donor agencies, intergovernmental organizations, and US government agencies that work internationally.  Prior to joining TNC in 2006, he worked for IUCN – The World Conservation Union in a variety of capacities, including: Special Advisor for Global Policy, directing IUCN’s engagement with multilateral institutions; Director of IUCN’s Canada Office, with responsibility for political, constituency and fundraising relations in Canada; and as Coordinator of IUCN’s Temperate and Boreal Forest Programme, establishing IUCN’s forest conservation programs in Russia, China and Canada.  Along the way, he also served as the Lead Forest Negotiator for the US State Department and as Forest Policy Advisor to the World Bank.  From 1994 to 1997, Dr. Deutz was a Research Associate at the Woods Hole Research Center, working on the Kyoto Protocol negotiations, as well as international forest policy and the Biodiversity Convention.  He holds a doctorate in International Environmental Law from the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy.