Renaud, Fabrice

Biography

Dr. Fabrice Renaud has been with UNU-EHS since 2004 and is the Head of Section for the Environmental Vulnerability and Ecosystem Services Section since 2007. From August 2009 to May 2011, he served as Director ad interim of UNU-EHS. He comes has a background in agronomy with an emphasis on environmental pollution by agrochemicals, in particular pesticides. Prior to joining UNU-EHS, Dr. Renaud worked at international organizations and academia in Namibia, Thailand, the USA and the UK. Since joining UNU-EHS, Dr. Renaud’s research has focused on the environmental component of vulnerability, risk and resilience of social-ecological systems exposed to environmental hazards. He is responsible for carrying out research on and developing concepts and projects dealing with the environmental dimension of vulnerability; ecosystem services in the context of disaster risk reduction; the resilience of social-ecological systems to external shocks; water pollution and human and ecosystem exposure to such pollution; and land degradation processes particularly in the context of climate change. These projects have been/are implemented in Europe; Central, South and Southeast Asia; and West Africa. Dr. Renaud lectures in UNU-EHS’ training programmes in Bonn, South Africa and Indonesia, and contributes lectures to training programmes from other organizations or at other universities (notably the University of Bonn). He co-leads the module UM4b “New concepts and theories of social ecological systems and development” of the joint MSc programme “Geography of Environmental Risks and Human Security” (offered by UNU-EHS and the University of Bonn) with a course on “Concepts and theories of social-ecological systems, ecosystem services and disaster risk reduction”. He also supervises PhD students who work on the section’s projects as well as Msc students emanating principally from UNU-EHS’ joint MSc. programme. Dr. Renaud is involved in many networks, notably the Partnership for Environment and Disaster Risk Reduction (PEDRR) and is in the Steering Committee of the Ecosystem Services Partnership (ESP). He is also a member of the Science for Nature and People (SNAP) working group on Coastal Defenses. At UN University, Dr. Renaud serves as focal point to the IPCC and an alternate representative to UN-Water. From August 2013 and for a period of two years, Dr. Renaud was posted in Indonesia where, in addition to his role as Head of Section, he developed institutional ties between UNU-EHS and the Indonesian Institute of Sciences, and partnerships with other academic/research organizations and United Nations agencies in the country.

Research Interest

Ecosystems and Disaster Risk Reduction, Vulnerability and Risk Assessment, Water Pollution