Philippe Roch

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Philippe Roch is a Swiss [civil servant] born on September 13, 1949

1 Biography
2 Actions at the national level
3 Actions at the international level
4 External links

[edit] Biography

Roch was born in Lancy (canton of Geneva) on 13 September 1949. Having received his doctorate in biochemistry from the University of Geneva in 1977, he immediately became involved in the field of conservation and environmental protection. He began his career as head of the WWF office in the French-speaking part of Switzerland and then became a member of the national WWF management team and Director general of WWF Switzerland. In 1992, he was appointed Director of the Swiss Agency for the Environment, Forests and Landscape (SAEFL) by the Federal Council. After 13 years at the helm, Roch resigned his directorship effective 1 October 2005. He was often criticized for being too much advocacy oriented and to not really understand that he had moved from NGO representative to civil servant

[edit] Actions at the national level

As well as being responsible for the management of SAEFL, Philippe Roch was active at the national level to support, in particular, the implementation of the law on the reduction of CO₂ emissions (which after more than 10 years has still not entered into force), the development of legislation in the area of biotechnology, the introduction of Swiss forest certification labels, the conservation of the mire landscape on the Southern shores of Lake Neuchâtel, and the protection of threatened animal species such as the lynx. In addition, Philippe Roch was a member of the Research Steering Committee, which is responsible for the planning and coordination of research within the federal administration.

[edit] Actions at the international level

At the international level, he represented Switzerland (acting in the capacity of State Secretary) in negotiations on environmental matters. Here, he worked in favour of strengthening UNEP and the global environmental regime, particularly in the areas of biodiversity, climate change, wastes, chemicals and water, and also supported the introduction of liability for environmental damage. Philippe Roch was a member and twice co-chairman of the Council of the Global Environment Facility (GEF). He was a Board member of the United Nations Institute for Training and Research, of which he is now Senior Special Fellow. He chaired the Conference of the parties to the Basle Convention (1999-2002) and the Conference of the Parties to the Rotterdam Convention (2004-2005). He is a member of the Foundation Board of the Geneva International Academic Network (GIAN).

He is acting now as an independent consultant.