Keynote Presenter
Moderator
Mr. Ken Shimizu
Country Representative FAO, Nepal
Mr Ken Shimizu is the FAO Country Representative for Nepal since July 2021. Prior to this appointment, Mr Shimizu worked as the FAO Representative for Papua New Guinea since 2013. Ken has 24 years of experience in food security, agricultural and rural development, natural resources management, climate change, disaster risk reduction and emergency coordination, primarily with FAO and other UN agencies in Asia and the Pacific as well as the Caribbean. Ken is a national of Japan, and holds a master’s in environmental planning from Cornell University in the USA.
Dr. Bimal Raj Regmi
Oxford Policy Management, Nepal
Dr Bimal Raj Regmi is an expert member of National Environment Protection and Climate Change Management Council. He has worked on local and community-based adaptation since 2004 and has been supporting government of Nepal in policy and institutional reforms facilitating the localization of climate change. He is also leading research and practices in the field of climate change adaptation, climate finance and Loss and Damage and worked in South Asia. Dr Regmi holds a PhD from Flinders University, Australia on Climate Change Adaptation. He is adjunct professor in Agriculture and Forestry University, Nepal.
Speaker
Dr. Linfeng Fan
Professor Chinese Academy of Sciences, China
Pam Pearson is a former U.S. diplomat with 20 years’ experience working on global issues, including climate change, the GEF and MDB environmental policies. She served in postings to Ecuador, Sweden, Norway; and worked in Central Asia with USAID to design some of its earliest environmental health programs there. She was part of the Kyoto Protocol climate negotiating team, and later served as the US focal point to the Global Fund on AIDS. Pam founded the International Cryosphere Climate Initiative (ICCI) in 2010 to bring greater attention and policy focus to the rapid changes occurring to mountain and polar regions.
Dr. Bimala Rai Paudyal
Chair Former Minister for Foreign Affairs Government of Nepal
Bimala is a political analyst, law maker, an academic, and impac evaluator in public policy and sustainable development, with specialty on natural resource governance, climate change, social protection, gender equality and social inclusion. She is adjunct Professor of Development Studies at Agriculture and Forestry University (AFU). Earlier Minister of Foreign Affairs, Member of Parliament and a member of National Planning Commission, Bimala holds a PhD in Development Studies from Institute of Social Studies (ISS), The Hague and an MA (Econ) and PGD (Dev Admin) from the University of Manchester, UK. She is a member of Climate Parliament, and global campaign on Parliamentarians call for Fossil Fuel Free Future (FFFF).
Dr. Pam Pearson
Director International Climate Cryosphere Initiative
Pam Pearson is a former U.S. diplomat with 20 years’ experience working on global issues, including climate change, the GEF and MDB environmental policies. She served in postings to Ecuador, Sweden, Norway; and worked in Central Asia with USAID to design some of its earliest environmental health programs there. She was part of the Kyoto Protocol climate negotiating team, and later served as the US focal point to the Global Fund on AIDS. Pam founded the International Cryosphere Climate Initiative (ICCI) in 2010 to bring greater attention and policy focus to the rapid changes occurring to mountain and polar regions.
Dr. Gopal Kumar
Natural Resource Expert International Water Management Institute, India
Dr. Gopal Kumar is currently an International Researcher in Agroecology and Natural Resource Management at the International Water Management Institute (IWMI) in New Delhi. With over 18 years at the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR), where he held various roles including Head of Division and Principal Scientist, he brings extensive expertise in the field of natural resource management. His research focuses on natural resource inventory, land degradation mapping, monitoring, and management, with a specialization in climate change adaptation through soil and water conservation. Dr. Kumar recent contributions include designing small-scale water harvesting and storage systems, creating edaphic suitability maps for Litchi cultivation, and developing low-cost runoff samplers. He has also been instrumental in mapping ravines across Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, and Gujarat, and developing perennial-based technologies for ravine reclamation. He has authored or co-authored more than 150 publications, with 63 appearing in peer-reviewed journals.