Laila ABDULLATIF

Laila Mostafa Abdullatif

Director General of Emirates Nature - WWF

Laila Mostafa Abdullatif is the Director General of Emirates Nature-WWF – the UAE-based environmental charity and NGO that works in association with global conservation organization WWF. She is a highly respected Emirati conservationist and sustainability leader, with over 14 years of experience driving innovation, scalability and strategic multi-stakeholder collaboration to ensure transformative impact for climate and nature. 

Laila Former Chairwoman  of  WWF’s Asia Pacific 25 (AP25) – the network of 25 offices working together to catalyse innovation and impact, where she spearheads the Stakeholder Executive and Management Team. An industry disruptor with a proven aptitude for growth, she is part of the UAE’s Circular Economy Council, and previously served on the UAE COP28 Advisory Committee, through which she advised the COP28 President on science-based solutions for conservation, sustainability, market transformation and the green economy. 

Additionally, Laila sits on the board of Clean Rivers, and is part of the steering committee of the Global Islamic Finance Program (GIFP) for Climate, Nature and Development, which aims to develop an Islamic global south fund towards originating and investing in climate resilient Nature-based Solutions. 

She oversees pioneering climate and nature initiatives, including the MENA region’s first alliance of non-state actors for climate action (UACA), a collaborative effort to Build Resilient and Sustainable Rural Communities, and multiple marine and terrestrial Nature-based Solutions (including the nation’s flagship climate adaption project). Through the charity’s work on the Sustainable Blue Economy, Laila is helping create a supportive landscape for the origination of innovative Nature-based Solutions and a pipeline of bankable projects powered by innovative financing solutions. 

Laila firmly believes in the importance of an activated civil society, one that acknowledges the vital connection between nature and humanity and is inclusive of youth as well as local indigenous communities. Under her stewardship, Emirates Nature-WWF’s digital AI driven platform Leaders of Change grew to become UAE’s largest civil society movement for nature, encouraging a unique philanthropic model incorporating both philanthropy and volunteerism on the ground.