Process // The German Advisory Group

The German Advisory Group consists of 14 experts from the fields of science, policymaking and practice. The advisory group has the task of advising the federal government on all technical, political and institutional questions that arise in the preparatory process. It aims to ensure that the expertise available in Germany flows into the preparatory process. The German Advisory Group will meet three times in the run-up to the Bonn2011 Nexus Conference.

Dieter Ernst

is a Secretary of State (ret.) and represents the RWL Water Group in the German Advisory Group.

Holger Hoff

is a research associate at the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK) and a Senior Research Fellow of the Stockholm Environment Institute (SEI). He also advises the German and Swedish development cooperation community on climate change, agriculture and water issues.

Wolfgang Jamann

is Secretary-General and chairman of the board of German Agro Action and the former executive director of CARE Deutschland-Luxemburg. He has also worked for World Vision in Sudan and for UNDP's development and humanitarian assistance projects in Zambia.

Gernot Klepper

heads the Environment and Natural Resources research unit at Institute for the World Economy at the University of Kiel. He also chairs the National Committee on Global Change Research (NKGCF) and is the spokesman of the Kiel Earth Institute.

Thomas Koenen

is head of the department for Climate and Sustainable Development of the Federation of German Industries (BDI) and the managing director of econsense, a dialogue platform and think tank for sustainable development and corporate social responsibility.

Jürgen Maier

a conservation expert, is director of the Forum on Environment and Development. He was previously the director of the Asia Foundation in Essen, and between 1987 and 1991 served on the Federal Board of Germany's Green Party, of which he is a co-founder.

Wolfram Mauser

is professor of geography and remote sensing and Dean of the Faculty of Geosciences at the University of Munich. Between 2003 and 2008 he was chairman of the National Committee on Global Change Research (NKGCF).

Dirk Messner

is director of the German Development Institute (DIE-GDI). He is also a professor at the Faculty of Social Sciences at the University of Duisburg-Essen and deputy chair of the Federal Government's Advisory Council on Global Change (WBGU).

Günter Mitlacher

is head of biological diversity at WWF Germany and represented the organisation at the Biodiversity Summit in Nagoya. Previously he worked for the Federal Agency for Nature Conservation, the Federal Environment Ministry and the German Nature and Biodiversity Conservation Union (NABU).

Irene Quaile-Kersken

is a journalist for Deutsche Welle, where she reports mainly on climate change and other environmental issues. She has also worked for Deutschlandfunk and other public broadcasters in the UK, Europe and Australia.

Lucia A. Reisch

is professor of intercultural consumer behaviour and consumer policy at Copenhagen Business School, member of the German Council for Sustainable Development (RNE) and chair of the Scientific Advisory Board on Consumer and Food Policies at the Federal Ministry of Food, Agriculture and Consumer Protection (BMELV).

Claudia Warning

serves on the Board of Executive Directors of the Church Development Service (EED), where she heads the International Programs department, which supports development projects in over 80 countries. Previously, she was a board member of the Karl Kübel Foundation, where she was responsible for development cooperation.

Michael Windfuhr

manages the Human Rights Team at Diakonisches Werk and Brot für die Welt. Before, he was instrumental in developing and managing the Food First Information and Action Network (FIAN). In 2011 he will join the German Institute for Human Rights as deputy director.

Harald von Witzke

is a professor and head of the international agricultural trade and development department at Humboldt University in Berlin. He also serves on the faculty of the Graduate Center for Economic and Social Research at the German Institute for Economic Research (DIW) in Berlin.