An ecologist and environmentalist by training (9 years at Madrid University as research fellow and assistant professor in Ecology), he has worked since 1985 for the Council of Europe mainly on environment and disaster risk reduction issues, first as Secretary of a European Wildlife Convention (the Bern Convention), as Head of the Environment Division and also as Executive Secretary of the European and Mediterranean Major Hazards Agreement (EUR-OPA), a platform of cooperation between European and Southern Mediterranean states in major natural and technological hazards. In the framework of his responsibilities in the environment sector he was in charge from 1998 until 2012 of the Unit of Biological Diversity. Since January 2013 he is in charge of a number of other varied programmes, including Intercultural Cities, Civil Society, the World Forum of Democracy and Cultural Routes. Among the instruments he helped prepare were the European Landscape Convention, over a hundred recommendations and policy documents on risk management and environment, and was responsible for the preparation of Ministerial Conferences in Biodiversity and Major Risks. Main field of competence:, biological diversity risk management and other environment / sustainable development issues.