Adja Aïssatou SY SEYDI is coordinator of the Observatory for Biodiversity and Protected Areas in West Africa (OBAPAO). She also coordinates the Environmental Monitoring Programme of the Centre de Suivi Ecologique (CSE), which is the lead of the OBAPAO consortium. Ms SEYDI was a technical adviser to the Senegalese Minister for the Environment and Sustainable Development. She is an agricultural engineer and has a master’s degree in development economics. She also specialises in environmental science and management, with a particular focus on the management of biodiversity and protected areas. Over the past eighteen years, she has been active in the field of biodiversity conservation, particularly in the development and implementation of protected area projects. She has also been involved in activities relating to governance and the effectiveness of protected area management.