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Dr. Debbie J. Pain
Dr. Debbie Pain has a first class degree in Environmental
Chemistry from London University and a DPhil from the
University of Oxford. She has worked on lead poisoning for
27 years. She started working on the biochemistry of lead
poisoning in birds in 1983, carrying out her DPhil research in
both the UK and with the US Fish and Wildlife Service in the
USA. She subsequently worked for four years as a research
scientist at an independent Biological Research Station in
the Camargue, France. During this period she led the IWRB
(International Waterfowl and Wetlands Research Bureau)
task force on Poisoning of Waterfowl by Toxic Lead Shot for
the Hunting Impact Research Group, organised the scientific
programme for an IWRB lead poisoning workshop (Brussels,
1991) and edited the workshop proceedings (IWRB Spec. Pub.
16). She subsequently spent 16 years at RSPB where she ran the
International Research Unit.
During her career she has worked on a wide range of topics
in the UK and overseas including the impacts of a range of
environmental contaminants, farming systems and birds,
identifying causes of poor conservation status in threatened
birds and developing practical conservation solutions. She
has more than 100 scientific publications and has co-written/
edited three books. Thirty six of her peer-reviewed publications
are on contaminants, 26 of these on lead. For the last three
years she has been Director of Conservation at the Wildfowl &
Wetlands Trust (WWT).
David A. Stroud MBE
David Stroud MBE is Senior Ornithologist with the UK’s Joint
Nature Conservation Committee and is currently Chair of
the Technical Committee of the African-Eurasian Migratory
Waterbirds Agreement (AEWA). As well as AEWA, he has
worked with a number of other multi-lateral environment
organisations especially those related to birds and wetlands,
and including Ramsar’s Scientific and Technical Review Panel,
the EU Birds Directive’s Ornis Committee (and its Scientific
Working Group), several avian Working Groups established
by the Contention on Migratory Species (CMS), and the CMS
MoU on raptor conservation. He has also worked closely with
several international non-government organisations including
Wetlands International, IUCN and the International Wader
Study Group.
Professor Vernon G. Thomas
Prof. Vernon G. Thomas completed his BA degree in Physiology,
Psychology, and Philosophy at the University of Oxford in
1966. He gained a PhD degree in Ecology in 1975 at the
University of Guelph, and was then hired as a professor to be
part of the Wildlife Management Program. Vernon’s teaching
and research specialities at the graduate and undergraduate
levels included Wildlife Management, Natural Resources
Policy, Ornithology, Mammalogy, Ecology, and Developmental
Biology. Vernon retired in 2010, but remains at the University
as a Professor Emeritus.
His main research focus in later years has been the transfer of
science to environmental policy and law, especially in protected
areas creation, invasive species control, reducing environmental
contamination from lead, and promoting use of managed
pollinators in agriculture and biodiversity conservation. Vernon
has worked, and continues to work, internationally in all these
areas. One of his specialities is the presentation of briefs to
parliamentary committees in Canada, Europe, and the USA. His
research has influenced, directly, the amendment of Canadian
federal law, as in the case of The Parks Act being revised to
require lead-free fishing weights in all National Parks, and the
introduction of mandatory ballast water exchange regulations
for shipping under the National Transportation Act. Vernon’s
recent research was influential in California’s passing legislation
in 2013 that will end the use of all lead-based ammunition for
hunting in that state in 2019, or sooner.
RAPPORTEUR
Tim Jones
Tim Jones has a technical background in the conservation
of wetland ecosystems and waterbirds, having worked for
Wetlands International and as European Regional Coordinator
for the Secretariat of the Ramsar Convention on Wetlands. He
has a worldwide network of contacts in both governmental
and non-governmental sectors and has built up a strong
reputation for leading insightful project and programme
evaluations and providing expert report-writing services
for major environmental conferences such as those of the
Convention on Migratory Species (CMS) and the Ramsar
Convention on Wetlands.
Appendix 1