JRS is pleased to welcome our newest Trustee for 2015 – Souleymane Konaté.

Souleymane Konaté is a professor in ecology at the University Nangui Abrogoua (Côte d’Ivoire), where he is currently leading a research unit on Ecology and Biodiversity (UREB). Souleymane received a Ph.D. in Ecology in 1998 from the University of Paris 6 (Pierre & Marie Curie) in France, and was the winner of 2004 START Young Scientist Award in Ecology.

He serves as Coordinator of the Protected Areas Programme of the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) for West and Central Africa; and as senior researcher on biodiversity and climate change at WASCAL (West African Science Service Center on Climate Change and Adapted Land Use). He is also member of international steering committies of several networks and programs like AMMA (African Monsoon) and GLP (Global Land Project), IGBP (International Geosphere‑Biosphere Programme) and IHDP (The International Human Dimension Programme on Global Environmental Change).

During the last 15 years, Dr.  Konaté has been known as a respected expert in integration of science and society through organization of scientific activities, synthesis and knowledge dissemination on biodiversity and human related questions. One of these achievements is his contribution, as co-editor and author, to the Biodiversity Atlas of West Africa (2010).