Oliver Hillel

Montreal

Oliver Hillel is a specialist in nature-based urban planning and design; urban-rural linkages for the green and blue economy; and tourism destination management, working in Montreal, Canada. Oliver is Vice-President of Instituto Orizzonte, a Brazilian NGO focused on territorial and water governance and nature-based solutions (https://www.instagram.com/institutoorizzonte/), and an associate expert of the UN-Tourism affiliated World Centre of Excellence for Destinations (www.ced.travel). For 17 years as program officer at the Secretariat of the Convention on Biological Diversity, he was responsible for the harmonization of policies across subnational and local levels, mainstreaming of biodiversity into economic sectors and finance, South-South cooperation and island biodiversity. A biologist with a master’s Degree in Environmental Education and MBAs on Managerial Accounting and Hotel Management, Oliver has over 24 years’ experience on international cooperation and negotiations on sustainable tourism, event organization, and training and capacity building programs across many themes and issues related to sustainable development. Previously, he was the team leader for a tourism development cooperation project in the Philippines, Tourism Programme Coordinator for UNEP’s Division of Technology, Industry and Economics based in Paris, France, and Ecotourism Program director for Conservation International. He also worked for SENAC, a professional training institution in his home country Brazil, where he created and managed training and consulting services for hotels, restaurants, and theme parks. He led negotiations towards the adoption of two ten-year successive Plans of Action for Subnational Governments, Cities and other Local Authorities, and coordinated 8 Cities and Biodiversity Summits parallel to meetings of the Conference of the Parties, as well as several reference publications on the links between urbanization and biodiversity.