Cristina Romanelli

Cristina Romanelli, is an environmental scientist and programme officer on biodiversity, climate and health with the World Health Organization. She has over 20 years of experience in policy evaluation and development, multi-stakeholder engagement, capacity-building, and interdisciplinary research at the nexus of biodiversity conservation and management, global health, climate change, and One Health. She has provided scientific and policy advice in both scientific research and regulatory-compliance settings. Prior to joining the WHO’s Department of Environment, Climate Change and Health she managed the WHO’s Joint Work Programme on biodiversity and health with the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) for ten years.  

She has served as an expert, resource person and lead author for the Inter-governmental Science-Policy Platform for Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES), and led capacity-building activities bringing together Ministries of Health and those responsible for biodiversity conservation across some 100 countries. She was principal lead coordinating author of the WHO State of Knowledge Review on Biodiversity and Human Health, and led the development of Biodiversity-inclusive One Health Guidance adopted at the CBD 14th Conference of the Parties (COP 14) in 2018. At WHO, she also coordinates the Expert Working Group on Biodiversity, Climate, One Health and Nature-based Solutions.