Hanna Wetterstrand works at SwedBio as a programme officer responsible for the marine programme

Together with the marine programme´s 12 partner organisations, SwedBio contributes to relevant international policy and practice related to small scale fishers and the sustainable use of oceans. The intention of the marine programme is to contribute to poverty alleviation, equity, sustainable livelihoods, as well as coastal/marine social-ecological systems that are rich in biodiversity. The programme aims to do this through: improved understanding, knowledge generation, management practices and good governance.

As a professional meeting facilitator, Wetterstrand engages in participatory development of meetings. She uses facilitation techniques during multi-actor dialogues, which SwedBio runs regularly, with different themes and topics. The dialogues contribute to important international policy and practice processes – all of which have relevance for developing countries and marginalized people.

Wetterstrand is an agronomist with a Masters in Environmental Economics from the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, including an exchange year at University of Guelph, Canada. During her Master's, she completed her thesis, A multidimensional impact study on indigenous women in rural Guatemala. Thereafter, she worked with sustainable development in education as a course coordinator/amanuens at the Centre for Environment and Development Studies at Uppsala University. Before joining the Centre, she gained seven years experience working with development issues, poverty eradication, climate change adaptation, sustainable agriculture and rural development at We Effect and Vi-Skogen. While she was based in Stockholm, she also spent extensive periods working in East Africa, and shorter periods in Zimbabwe, Malawi, Paraguay and Honduras. Wetterstrand was a member of the national board of Swedish Society for Nature conservation for six years.

For her first three years at the Centre, Wetterstrand worked as a strategic advisor to the director, Professor Johan Rockström.

Wetterstrand has also done research at the KTH, the Royal Institute of Technology, with Cecilia Håkansson and Lina Isaacs on deliberative valuation of ecosystem services and the facilitation of such processes.

Awards and achievements:

• Certificate as a professional facilitator in Time to Think
• Development and management of SwedBio´s Marine Programme
• Facilitator of the SwedBio Multi-Actor Dialogue in Medellín Colombia 2013 on “Integrating Social-Ecological Resilience into the New Development Agenda”
• Collectively with SRC colleageus influencing the development of the Sustainable Development Goals, especially with respect to Biodiversity, the Planetary Boundaries and Social-Ecological Resilience
• Development of We effect and Vi Agroforestry´s strategy on Environment and Climate Change