Musonda Mumba

Dr. Musonda Mumba is the Secretary General of the Ramsar Convention on Wetlands, based in Gland, Switzerland. She has over 25 years of experience in the environment and conservation fields. She was formerly a diplomat at the UN, where she spent over 12 years at the UN Environment Programme working on climate change adaptation and diverse environmental issues linked to nature-based solutions. She worked in senior roles on issues related to landscape ecosystems management, climate change, restoration, conservation, and sustainable development. In 2021, she joined the United Nations Development Programme as the Director of the Rome Centre for Sustainable Development, supporting the Italian G20 Presidency. Later, she took on a role as senior advisor for the UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration.

Prior to joining the United Nations, she worked for the World Wide Fund for Nature, Ramsar Convention on Wetlands, and the Zambian government. In 2019, she was voted chair of the Global Partnership on Forest and Landscape Restoration, and in 2021 as vice-chair for the Collaborative Partnership on Forests. She is also the Founder of the Network of African Women Environmentalists and in September 2021 was named one of the 100 most influential African Women. On International Women’s Day 2022, she was honoured by the Global Landscape Forum as one of 16 Women from around the World Restoring the Planet. She is a visiting senior research fellow at the Perry World House of the University of Pennsylvania and honorary senior research associate at University College London. Musonda has a Bachelor of Science Education from the University of Zambia and a PhD in wetland conservation and hydrology from University College London. She speaks the Zambian language Bemba, English, and French fluently.