Barbara Gemmill-Herren

Headshot of smiling woman

Position Title
Senior Associate
Associate Faculty

  • World Agroforestry Centre
  • Prescott College
Bio

Barbara Gemmill-Herren is a Senior Associate to the World Agroforestry Centre, supporting the United Nations’ work on agroecology and true-cost accounting in agriculture. She is also an Associate Faculty at Prescott College, Prescott, Arizona, USA, teaching Food Systems, Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services and Advanced Food and Agriculture Policy. She was Coordinator of the International Pollinator Initiative and Delivery Manager for Ecosystem Services and Biodiversity at the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), responsible for work on Ecosystem Services in Agricultural Production, and Agroecology. She was a project team member of the Committee on World Food Security of the UN, High-Level Panel of Experts Report on “Agroecological and other innovative approaches for sustainable agriculture and food systems that enhance food security and nutrition”. She has contributed to the United Nations Environment’s TEEB AgFood (The Economics of Ecosystem and Biodiversity for Agriculture and Food)’s Scientific and Economic Foundations Report and was the principal investigator for TEEBAgFood on rice production systems. She consulted with FAO on their Biodiversity Mainstreaming Strategy and serves on the steering committee of a True Cost Accounting Community of Practice and Accelerator. Prior to joining the United Nations, she spent 25 years living and working in three countries in Africa – Nigeria, Bénin and Kenya. In Nigeria and Bénin she completed doctoral research on the ecology of regenerating forests after cultivation, documenting traditional practices and comparing outcomes with conventional approaches. In Kenya she served as Executive Director of an international NGO linked to the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), and coordinated work on organic agriculture in Kenya, forest certification in East Africa, and pollinator conservation in Africa.