Carlos Manuel Rodriguez, GEF CEO and Chairperson:

Gabriela Blatter is responsible for international environmental finance at Switzerland’s Federal Office of Environment, and represents seven countries – Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyz Republic, Switzerland, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan – on the Global Environment Facility’s governing body, the GEF Council.

Last week, the CEO and Chairperson of the Global Environment Facility, Carlos Manuel Rodriguez, visited Indonesia to attend the fourth meeting of the Conference of the Parties to the Minamata Convention on Mercury and took the opportunity to visit two local initiatives supported by the GEF Small Grants Programme (SGP).

Midori Paxton is a former journalist, humanitarian worker, and author who leads UNDP’s efforts to protect biodiversity and ecosystems in more than 130 countries. In an interview, she shared her motivations for working to place nature at the heart of economic and development planning and decision making, and to shift funding flows toward activities that help the environment rather than harm it. Her advice to young people who are passionate about these issues? Jump right in. “You can worry about a career path later.”