Myrna SEMAAN

MYRNA SEMAAN PhD Brief summary

A- Project Management and Consultancy (over 15 years):

• International organizations: 7 topics for IUCN, EU Commission, GEF
• Government: - ecological studies to the Ministries of Agriculture, Environment, Tourism - professional consultant to Minister of Agriculture (1994-1996) on donor funded projects.
• Private companies: 8 projects
• Donor funded projects: 7 projects, mainly capacity building with UNDP, GEF, GTZ, World Bank, EU.

B- Academic Management: Dean and chairperson of Faculty of Applied Sciences.

C- Professorship: 16 years giving courses geared to sustainable development at 9 universities including AUB, LAU, USEK, UBalamand, NDU.

D- Author: of 4 books which unveil the distinctive natural heritage of Lebanon and the East Mediterranean, and its integral cultural dimension, in addition to numerous articles.

E- Conservation: pioneered nature conservation with the development of the first two nature reserves (the most pristine cedar remnant, and a 3-island archipelago) through grassroots empowerment and parliamentary ratification of the first conservation law, creating the breakthrough and legal precedence in the Republic of Lebanon.Current conservation activity pioneers another module - conservation with the private sector.

F- Formal Qualifications

• PhD in Plant Science and conservation, University of Reading – England o research fellowship with the Division of Environmental System Policy and Management (ESPM), UC Berkeley – USA.
• Fulbright scholar