Dr Axel Paulsch

Axel Paulsch is geo-ecologist and since 2004 chairperson of the ibn.

In his work for the ibn office Axel Paulsch works with the CBD since 2002, including the analysis of research needs from CBD decisions, and concentrates on the links between science and environmental policy on national and international scale.

Within the ibn expert network he is responsible for projects at the science-policy interface and he represents the ibn at meetings of multilateral environmental agreements (CBD, UNFCC, UNCCD) as well as in international negotiations of the newly formed Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES). He followed the founding processes of IPBES from the very beginning as a member of the German delegation and the uptake of indigenous and local knowledge was a focus topic. Doing IPBES capacity building workshops in Eastern Europe and Central Asia for governments, scientists and civil society is a recent focus in his work for ibn.

Axel Pausch teaches the module „Global Change Policy, Contracts and Administrative Strategies (CBD und IPBES)” at the University of Bayreuth in the international master programme „Global Change Ecology“.

He studied geo-ecology at the University of Bayreuth. His in-depth studies covered biogeography, vegetation science, forest dynamics and environmental problems in developing countries. For his diploma thesis he studied the ecological strategy of the coniferous tree Araucaria araucana in its relict stands in Chile. For his phd thesis he developed and applied a classification system for disturbed and undisturbed tropical montane forests based on vegetation structure in southern Ecuador. This classification system allows a fast division of larger forested areas into forest types of homogenous structure.