Secretary-General Appoints Elizabeth Maruma Mrema of United Republic of Tanzania Executive Secretary, Convention on Biological Diversity

United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres, following consultation with the Bureau of the Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity, announced today the appointment of Elizabeth Maruma Mrema of the United Republic of Tanzania as Executive Secretary to the Convention.

Ms. Mrema has been the Acting Executive Secretary since December 2019.  Before that, she served as Director of the Law Division at the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) in Nairobi, Kenya.  With more than two decades of experience at the United Nations, she brings to her new position extensive experience in global environmental law and policymaking, implementation of environmental and sustainable development programmes, and a deep knowledge of multilateral processes.

From 2009 to 2012, Ms. Mrema was the Executive Secretary of the UNEP/Convention on the Conservation of Migratory Species of Wild Animals.  She also served as the Acting Executive Secretary of the UNEP/ASCOBANS [Agreement on the Conservation of Small Cetaceans of the Baltic, North East Atlantic, Irish and North Seas], as well as Interim Executive Secretary of the UNEP/Gorilla Agreement, all based in Bonn, Germany.

Before joining UNEP, Ms. Mrema worked in the United Republic of Tanzania’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation, while also lecturing in public international law and conference diplomacy at the country’s Centre for Foreign Relations and Diplomacy.

Ms. Mrema holds a Master of Laws from Dalhousie University in Halifax, Canada, a post-graduate diploma in international relations and diplomacy from the Centre for Foreign Relations and Diplomacy in Dar-es-Salaam, United Republic of Tanzania, and a Bachelor of Laws from the University of Dar-es-Salaam.