Dr. Wynberg, Rachel

Rachel Wynberg

Rachel Wynberg is a natural scientist and environmental policy analyst, based at the EEU since 2005. Since 1992, she has worked actively on environmental issues with a wide range of international and South African governmental, non-governmental and inter-governmental organizations. Rachel’s work is currently focused on the commercialization and trade of biodiversity and the integration of social justice into biodiversity concerns; the development of legal and strategic frameworks for biodiversity conservation and use; and the interface between access to biodiversity, environmental rights and benefit sharing. Areas of research specialisation include the commercial use and development of indigenous southern African plants; policy issues relating to bioprospecting, natural product value chains, genetic resources, access and benefit-sharing; intellectual property rights and traditional knowledge; fair trade in southern African products; the impacts of genetically modified crops in developing countries; and strategic approaches to environmental assessment.

Rachel holds two Masters degrees from the University of Cape Town, one in Marine Biology, and the other in Environmental Science, and a PhD from the University of Strathclyde, Glasgow. Rachel is also a trustee and founding member of two South African NGOs, the Environmental Monitoring Group, and Biowatch South Africa; a Board member of PhytoTrade Africa; and a Senior Research Fellow at the United Nations University. Recent co-edited books include Indigenous Peoples, Consent and Benefit Sharing: Lessons from the San Hoodia case (Springer, 2009) and Wild Governance: Finding Policies that Work for Non-Timber Forest Products (Earthscan, 2010).
 

Email: Rachel.Wynberg@uct.ac.za / Rachel@iafrica.com
Phone: 021-6502865