Dr. Cyriaque Sendashonga
Senior Environmental Affairs Officer, Biosafety Protocol, Secretariat of the Convention on Biological Diversity, Montreal, Quebec, Canada
Biography:
Ms. Cyrie Sendashonga is a Senior Environmental Affairs Officer at the Secretariat of the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), where she is the Head of the Biosafety Program. She is responsible for coordinating the activities carried out by the CBD Secretariat in support of the implementation of the Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety. This Protocol is an international legally binding instrument which was adopted in January 2000 as a supplementary agreement to the Convention on Biological Diversity; its objective is to ensure an adequate level of protection of biological diversity against the potential adverse effects of genetically modified organisms (GMOs) resulting from modern biotechnology, especially with regard to the transboundary movements of such products.
Cyrie Sendashonga spent six years at the UNEP Headquarters in Nairobi, Kenya, where she was involved in the program activities dealing with biodiversity and biotechnology issues. Among other activities, her focus centered on the UNEP sub-program on microbial resources and related biotechnologies that could be utilized for sound environmental management. She subsequently became a Senior Program Officer responsible for the coordination of the implementation of projects in support of the conservation and sustainable use of biological diversity which where implemented by UNEP with funding from the Global Environment Facility (GEF).
Ms. Sendashonga was born and raised in Rwanda. She holds a Master’s (M. Sc) and PhD degree in Zoological Sciences from the Free University of Brussels, Belgium.
Status: Confirmed