Rosie Cooney is an ecologist and a biodiversity/environmental policy specialist, with over twenty years experience in biodiversity policy research, analysis and development. She is Senior Director of the ACT Government's Conservation Research team. She is past Chair of the IUCN Sustainable Use and Livelihoods Specialist Group and Visiting Fellow at UNSW and ANU. After taking first class Honours degrees in Zoology and in Law from ANU and a PhD in Zoology from Cambridge, she has worked for international conservation organisations (based in Europe), including IUCN – The World Conservation Union and WWF, and in Australia in research, teaching and consulting. Her work focuses on biodiversity conservation and sustainable use of natural resources, with a strong emphasis on finding approaches that both meet human needs and conserve biodiversity.