Peter Schei - a brief biography

BirdLife Peter Schei, BirdLife International's Chairman, enjoying some birdwatching in the UK Zoom In

From 1973 until he become BirdLife International's Chairman in 2004, Peter Schei worked for the Norwegian government. At the beginning of his career, as a graduate biologist from the University of Oslo, he joined Norway's Ministry of the Environment, which was the world's first. When he left the government, he was International Negotiations Director for Norway and was based at the Norwegian Directorate for Nature Management, where he had been Director General frm 1989 to 1995.

Peter grew up on a farm. "I was always interested in nature, and I remember being out in the woods with my father. But I started serious birdwatching first at the age of 19, at University. I heard someone playing bird song recordings on the first course I attended, and I was hooked."

He helped set up Norway's register of protected areas, and was subsequently involved in developing measures to protect them. He was, and remains, closely involved with the Convention on Biological Diversity and is considered one of its "founding fathers". In the 1990s, he initiated and chaired a series of CBD-related conferences at Trondheim, including in 1996 a conference on alien invasive species, which was rapidly recognised as an issue of global concern.

He has also worked with IUCN, as a member of the Commission on Parks and Protected Areas, the Species Survival Commission, and the Commission on Ecosystems Management. He has been involved with various projects for the UN, among them the UN's Millennium Project and the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment. He is currently the Director of the Fridtjof Nansen Institute, an independent foundation engaged in research on environmental, energy, and resource management politics, where the establishment and efficiency of international treaties, among them the CBD, Climate Change and UNCLOS, is one of the focal areas.

"I see BirdLife as a crucial knowledge-provider, a source of hard, solid facts on trends and status." —Peter Schei, Chairman of BirdLife

"I see BirdLife as a crucial knowledge-provider, a source of hard, solid facts on trends and status," he says. "It's now recognised around the world that BirdLife is the authority on all aspects related to birds, and also on wider biodiversity conservation and sustainable use. BirdLife's knowledge was extremely valuable in preparing the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment. Countries are also now using BirdLife's Important Bird Areas (IBAs) as a basis for national conservation programmes."

He says he felt very early in his career that it was important to see conservation in relation to people's needs. "At the time there tended to be confrontation between 'protectionists' and people who use nature. One important reason for my joining BirdLife was the 'for birds and people' message, which fits what I've been working for throughout my career. My work developing the scientific knowledge base for sustainable development and for the direct management of ecosystems also fits well with BirdLife policy."

He has set himself a number of goals as BirdLife's Chairman. "There are still a lot of serious gaps in BirdLife's global coverage, such as Colombia, Peru and China, which are all key bird countries. We will, however, need to find the right balance between the consolidation of our existing network and achievements, and the development of new organisations.

"We also need to start and implement projects for all 1200 threatened birds before 2010. Europe is rich enough, and has the potential, to stop the decline in its birds by 2010 , but should also help the rest of the world. Some species haven't had much attention, and we need to find out what kind of actions are right.

"We may not be able to save them all - some are probably gone already - and we'll have to set priorities -but so far I'm nor prepared to give up any!"