Kent Nnadozie,
Nigeria,
Lead Counsel, Natural Resources Law

Kent Nnadozie, JD, MBA, is Lead Counsel for Natural Resources Law with the CISDL. He is also Director of the Southern Environmental and Agricultural Policy Research Institute (SEAPRI), an initiative of the International Centre for Insect Physiology & Ecology (ICIPE), Nairobi, Kenya. He has also served as Executive Director of the Environmental Law Foundation of Nigeria. He is the co-ordinator of the Network of African Environmental Lawyers established under the auspices of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and Network for Environment and Sustainable Development in Africa; and a member of the Earth Circle, an indigenous people’s initiative as well as the IUCN Commission on Environmental Law and its Specialist Group on Indigenous Peoples and Environmental Law. A regular member of the Nigerian delegation to the Convention on Biological Diversity (COPs 4, 5 & 6) and has also participated in other multilateral environmental processes including the Climate Change Convention, the Convention on Desertification, Ramsar Convention, World Intellectual Property Organisation’s IGC and FAO International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture. He has served as a member of the Special Task Force set up by the Federal Government of Nigeria to review of all Intellectual Property laws and to prepare drafts of relevant new legislation, and as a member of the expert group involved in the programme of the African Union to assist member states in establishing legal/policy frameworks for the conservation and sustainable utilisation of biological diversity, the protection of Local Community Rights, and safety in Biotechnology. Other activities include the study of the legal and policy aspects, as well as the role, of Genetic Resources in Africa within the context of the New Partnership for Africa’s Development (NEPAD). He has also consulted widely for national bodies, international organisations and institutions as well as donors, including the United Nations FAO Commission and the Rockefeller Foundation, on related issues.