Pauliina Upla

Pauliina Upla, based in Nairobi, Kenya, works with the Wildlife Unit on project design and management and supports the secretariat of the Great Apes Survival Partnership. She has 12 years of professional experience both with public and private sectors, concentrating on environmental and natural resources management. Upla’s prior experience with UNEP includes working on green economy and environmental peacebuilding, including the extractives sector. She was with the UN Peacekeeping Mission in Monrovia, monitoring natural resources governance in Liberia, and worked with consulting companies in Finland, the Finnish Ministry for Foreign Affairs and a Zambian NGO promoting agroforestry. Upla is particularly interested in the complex challenge of reconciling the different and often conflicting land-use needs of resource extraction, local livelihoods and wildlife. She holds a Master’s Degree in Environmental Economics from the University of Helsinki and is working on her second degree in biodiversity and wildlife.