Arthur Dahl is President of the International Environment Forum, and a retired Deputy Assistant Executive Director of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), with 50 years' international experience in environment and sustainability. His most recent focus has been on global governance and UN reform.
He has been a consultant to the World Bank on indicators of development, Visiting Professor at the University of Brighton (UK) and Senior Advisor to its project on values-based indicators of education for sustainable development, and Co-coordinator of the UNEP Major Groups & Stakeholders Advisory Group on International Environmental Governance. More generally, his consultancies have covered indicators of sustainability, environmental assessment and observing strategies, coral reefs, biodiversity, islands, environmental education, and social and economic development. A specialist on coral reefs and small island developing States (SIDS), he spent many years in the South Pacific and organized the Pacific Regional Environment Programme (SPREP).
He is also interested in the relationship between science and values, and has participated in many conferences on ecology, ethics and spirituality. He represented the Baha'i International Community at the UN Conference on the Human Environment in Stockholm in 1972, was in the secretariat for the UN Conference on Environment and Development (Earth Summit) in Rio de Janeiro in 1992, and participated in the World Summit on Sustainable Development (Johannesburg, 2002) and the UN Conference on Sustainable Development (Rio+20) in Rio de Janeiro in 2012, as well as UN Climate Change Conferences COP15 (Copenhagen 2009) and COP21 (Paris 2015).
He teaches in various university programmes, lectures widely, and has published many scientific papers and books including: "Island Directory", "Unless and Until: A Baha'i Focus on the Environment", "The Eco Principle: Ecology and Economics in Symbiosis", "In Pursuit of Hope: A Guide for the Seeker", and "Global Governance and the Emergence of Global Institutions for the 21st Century".
