Pierre du Plessis has worked on various aspects of sustainable development for more than 30 years, with a specialist focus on access to genetic resources and the fair and equitable sharing of benefits arising from their utilisation.
He was one of Africa’s lead negotiators during the development of the Nagoya Protocol and has frequently represented Namibia and Africa at the CBD, WIPO and FAO.
Since the year 2000 he has been centrally involved in Namibia’s national efforts to promote the sustainable commercialisation of indigenous plant products, integrate such value chains into the national Community-Based Natural Resource Management programme and develop a functional and user-friendly system to regulate Access and Benefit Sharing. Pierre has practical experience at all levels of biotrade value chains, from organising rural raw material supply chains through processing and marketing to national and international policy development.
During the development of the Nagoya Protocol on Access and Benefit Sharing he was one of the lead negotiators for the African Group and co-chaired many of the negotiating sessions. He also compiled Namibia’s first greenhouse gas inventory, served on the Namibian Climate Change Committee for many years and has represented Namibia at international negotiations under the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, as well as at COP 15 where the Kumming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework was adopted in December 2023.
