Ehsan Dulloo

Dr. Mohammad Ehsan Dulloo holds a PhD degree in Conservation biology from University Birmingham and has four decades of proven experience in biodiversity conservation including ex situ and in situ conservation agrobiodiversity. He is currently Emeritus at the ‘Alliance of Bioversity International and CIAT ’and has been Principal Scientist when he retired in November 2022 and served the Alliance as a Honorary Research Fellow. He previously occupied positions as Senior Policy Officer, (FAO), project manager of World Bank GEF Biodiversity restoration project in Mauritius with Mauritian Wildlife Foundation and was Assistant Conservator of Forest (Ministry of Agriculture and Natural Resources Mauritius). Dr Dulloo has been lead-author of several global assessments of the status of agrobiodiversity and plant genetic resources including Chapter 2.2 Status and Trends – Nature of IPBES Global Assessment on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services’, FAO first, second and third State of the World Reports on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture and the 2005 Millennium Ecosystem Assessment report. He conceptualized the World Bank 2009 award winning proposal “Seeds for Needs” in Ethiopia on the use of genebank material in adapting to climate change. He led the development of the FAO international Genebank Standards and established the CGIAR Crop Genebank Knowledge Base. In 2023, the Curt Bergfors Foundation awarded its Food Planet Prize to the Agrobiodiversity Index, a project that Dr Dulloo co-led at the Alliance of Bioversity and CIAT, along with other Alliance colleagues. Further in November 2024, The Crop Trust nominated Dr Dulloo to join the Crop Trust Hall of Seed Heroes for his contribution to the development of internationally agreed genebank standards, widely used manuals for seed handling, and biodiversity conservation strategies in Mauritius and beyond. Dr Dulloo has also served as chair and co-chair of IUCN specialists Group for Indian Ocean Plants and Crop Wild Relative Specialist Group, and served as member of the Plant Sub-Committee of IUCN/SSC.