Senior Policy Advisor for Biodiversity, Federal Office of the Environment (FOEN), Switzerland
Nathalie Rizzotti is the Senior Biodiversity Policy Advisor for International Affairs at Switzerland's Federal Office of the Environment (FOEN).
Nathalie Rizzotti holds a bachelors’ degree in Biology (Ecology) and two Master’s Degrees in Environmental Management and in International Studies of Development.
Nathalie Rizzotti worked for the Swiss government as a project manager for the River restoration programme before working in Niger for WWF Niger evaluating a Swiss Development Cooperation project and related public policies. Then, she continued her career working for the International Convention for Wetlands Ramsar, managing an international programme with the private sector to support poorest communities to natural resources and develop alternative livelihoods, but also to influence countries policies, with specific projects in Nepal, Thailand and Argentina and being part of the Convention’ negotiations. She then worked as the EPFL coordinator for the UNESCO Chair “Technologies for development”. She always involved herself in parallel with associations working in Human Rights. She is interested in linking international debate to local actions and in working with the private sector on public-private partnerships and corporate social and environmental responsibilities.
She is currently Senior Policy advisor for the International Affairs of the Federal Office of the Environment and in charge of participating to negotiations related to the CBD in particular for the Resource mobilization strategy, Business and Biodiversity and Corporate Ecosystem valuation.
She is also part of the TEEB coordination group and is involved in the Swiss Biodiversity Strategy and action plan for the activities related to Economy and sustainable consumption.