Elsa Tsioumani (PhD)

Elsa Tsioumani is an international lawyer based in Thessaloniki, Greece. A writer for Earth Negotiations Bulletin since December 1999 with focus on biodiversity, she has witnessed the negotiation and adoption of instruments such as the Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety, the International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture, and the Nagoya Protocol on Access and Benefit-sharing.

Elsa has held research positions in academia, including in the University of Strathclyde in Glasgow (UK) and the University of Trento (Italy), and has served as a legal consultant for several international and non-governmental organizations. She has a Law Degree (Aristotle University of Thessaloniki), post-graduate degrees in European Law (College of Europe Bruges) and Public Law (Aristotle University of Thessaloniki), and a Ph. D in International Law (Democritus University of Thrace). She has authored extensively on international environmental law and policy, particularly regarding biodiversity, genetic resource governance, Indigenous peoples’ rights, governance of emerging technologies, and land, food and agriculture. Her open-access monograph on Fair and Equitable Benefit-sharing in Agriculture: Reinventing agrarian justice was published in 2020.