Team

Salman Hussain is the TEEB Coordinator and the Head a.i. of the for Ecosystem Services Economics Unit (ESEU) in UNEP. The Unit currently has 18 staff and consultants working on the core TEEB-ESEU mandate, i.e. shifting economic decision-making through recognizing, demonstrating and capturing the values of nature. The three main programmatic areas of work are on TEEB for Agriculture and Food (TEEBAgriFood), natural capital accounting through the application of SEEA Ecosystem Accounting, and a new work area on the interface between terrestrial and coastal ecosystems – TEEB4Coasts. Salman is the UNEP focal point for Action Track 3 in the Food Systems Summit on ‘Nature-positive food production’ and also co-leads the UNEP Task Team on food systems. Salman was awarded his PhD in Ecological Economics from the University of Edinburgh; his PhD focused on the economics of the ‘greening’ of industry, with a specific emphasis on eco-innovations and eco-labelling. Prior to joining UNEP in 2014 Salman was a researcher and the Programme Director of the Masters in Ecological Economics in the School of GeoSciences at the University of Edinburgh.

Mónica López has been working at UN Environment in Nairobi, Kenya for the past two years, managing projects on mainstreaming, natural capital accounting and ecosystem service valuation. Previously at UN Environment, she worked at the joint UN Development Programme- UN Environment Poverty Environment Initiative as Regional Advisor in the Africa Region. where she liaised directly with the country teams to develop and mainstream tools for sustainability and poverty reduction into national development planning.

Prior to the UN, she worked on Environmental and Food Security Framework Contracts for the European Commission and before that she worked mainly on community based natural resource management in Mozambique and various Latin American countries and pursued her postgraduate research on community participatory tools and education for sustainability. She holds a master’s degree in foreign cooperation.

Will joined the TEEB Office in November 2018 to work on the natural capital accounting and valuation of ecosystem services and the implementation of the TEEB for Agriculture and Food projects. Will is a development and agricultural economist with a decade of experience in public policy, advising governments on national development and agricultural strategies, and environmental policy frameworks. Prior to joining UN Environment, he worked at the United Nations Conference for Trade and Development, the World Bank Group, the International Institute for Sustainable Development and the Bank of England. Will holds a Bachelor of Economics from the University of Melbourne, a Master of Science in Economics from the Stockholm School of Economics, and a Master of Science in Environmental Management from University of London.

Jacob Salcone joined TEEB in April 2018. As a technical consultant, he helps governments and researchers use microeconomic tools to quantify and value the human benefits of ecosystems and biodiversity.

Jacob previously worked for IUCN, calculating the economic value of marine and coastal ecosystems to inform resource management decisions in Pacific Island countries. He holds an M.S. in Agricultural and Resource Economics from Colorado State University and a B.A. in International Sustainable Development from the University of California, Santa Cruz. He is currently modelling the land-use change impacts of payment for ecosystem service programs in Mexico in pursuit of a PhD in Human Dimensions of Natural Resources from Colorado State University. He has conducted community development research in California and South America and helped rural communities in the Western US resolve water and sanitation problems.