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Radhika, a Fijian national, is passionate about participatory and empowering approaches to conservation and brings to this function over 15 years of experience on environment and development issues. Having joined ������ϲʿ�������ֳ�ֱ�� in 2008 as a Project Officer, she initially led the development of the Islands Initiative and subsequently worked closely with the Commission on Ecosystem Management (CEM) on the development and promotion of Ecosystem based Disaster Risk Reduction, both as a Nature-Based Solution (NBS) concept and as an operational framework. More recently, Radhika has been facilitating collaboration between the Secretariat and CEM to establish a robust framework for an ������ϲʿ�������ֳ�ֱ�� NBS standard. 

Radhika holds a Bachelor’s degree in Forestry Science from The Australian National University and a Master’s degree in Land Management from The University of the South Pacific. Shortly, she will be defending her PhD on Nature-Based Solutions approaches to climate change adaptation in Burkina Faso, Chile and Senegal at the University of Bern.

In this new role, Radhika will be responsible for promoting and facilitating robust assessments of ecosystem status – including the up-scaling and systematic application of the Red List of Ecosystems; ensuring that ������ϲʿ�������ֳ�ֱ�� builds and maintains its reputation as a recognized authority in the conservation and management of historically overlooked ecosystems including islands, drylands and increasingly agro-ecological systems as well as mangrove ecosystems; positioning ������ϲʿ�������ֳ�ֱ�� as a global leader in operationalizing a systematic approach to “nature-based solutions” to a range of societal challenges, such as disasters and climate change. She will also provide support and ecosystem management related inputs to ������ϲʿ�������ֳ�ֱ��’s engagement with global policy mechanisms, namely, the UN Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD), The Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction, the UN Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), The UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (adaptation) as well as the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) processes.