Hatem BEN BELGACEM

Mr. Hatem Ben Belgacem has over 20 years of experiences of technical and administrative experience based on legal and scientific issues. Currently, he is Deputy Director of Environmental Studies at the Tunisian Ministry of Environment, a Biosafety Cartagena Protocol and Clearing-House Focal Point for Tunisia and a Clearing-House Mechanism (CHM) Focal Point of the Convention on Biological Diversity. He is also the Governmental focal point of IUCN and in charge to collaborate with UICN Med regarding all the activities in relation with nature conservation. He contributed in this regard to elaborate many strategies of conservation of endangered species at national and regional level and The Tunisian UICN Red List of Threatened Bird and Flora species. Also he he coordinated many UICN  activities in Tunisia like the green list of protected areas, the Ecosystems red list, the OTHER EFFECTIVE AREA-BASED CONSERVATION MEASURES and he supervised the PPI-OSCAN: Small scale initiatives for Civil Society Organizations in North Africa on its three phases.

He was the coordinator of the National Biodiversity Planning project to Support the Implementation of the CBD 2011-2020 Strategic Plan in Tunisia. His experience is also based on holding a Master’s Degree from the National Institute of Agronomy of Tunisia with a specialization on local animal’s genetic resources.

His main responsibility regarding biosafety is to manage the biosafety portfolio with the focus on genetically modified orgnisms (GMO) issues at his Ministry and at the national level. He manages the information on sampling, detection and identification of LMOs and he is the coordinator of the national laboratories network for GMOs in Tunisia. He has also organized and facilitated regional training sessions on detection and identification of GMOs.