Chris MAHON

I have degrees in Environmental Science (BSc. (Hons.)) and Environmental Assessment (MSc). For thirteen years I led the Cheshire Wildlife Trust as its Director and latterly, its Chief Executive, as well as being the Managing Director of the Trust’s consultancy. Prior to this, my career lay in local government as a planning department ecologist in Cheshire, England. During that time I was active in local environmental leadership, majoring on partnership working;  I chaired both the Cheshire and Warrington Sustainability Alliance, and the Cheshire and Warrington Climate Change Group and was a leading figure in the Local Biodiversity Action Planning process for over a decade. I have been Managing Director of my own consultancy company, Chris Mahon Environment (CME), since 2007. Interesting contracts which I have delivered through CME include: 

• being the Chief Executive of the UK National Committee for the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) with projects being delivered for protected areas, river restoration and biodiversity (www.iucn-nc.uk) and carbon codes.
• as the Development Director of World Heritage UK (worldheritageuk.org ), a charity committed to advocacy, networking and promotion of the UK’s 31 World Heritage Sites. 

• Secretariat Services for environmental charity The Sibthorp Trust (www.sibthorptrust.com), currently working on the Ecosystem Approach and working with young people. I am a member of the IUCN World Commission on Protected Areas and the IUCN Commission on Education and Communication and am developing a goal of having each of the IUCN Commissions supported by a UK working group in the National Committee. 

  I currently live on the east coast of England and have been fortunate to have travelled extensively, having attended the Johannesburg World Summit on Sustainable Development as well as other international conferences, including the Convention on Biological Diversity and four IUCN World Conservation Congresses. I chair the IUCN Global Group of Regional Committee representatives  and co-chair a similar network, the IUCN Interregional Committee for Europe, North and Central Asia as well as having a wide network of environment contacts in the home nations of the UK and the wider world.