Over the past three decades Tanya Abrahamse has participated in, advised on, and led a range of local, national and international initiatives, processes, organisations and institutions in the spheres of environment, natural resource management, biodiversity, tourism, climate change, knowledge management and science and development. She has sat on a number of formal boards and committees in the private and public sector giving her insight into the optimum roles and responsibilities of board members for good governance to build robust organisations and institutions.
In the past five years she has been the Chair of the Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF), a panel member of the UN Environment International Resources Panel (UN -IRP), an advisory board member of the UN Institute for Advanced Studies (UN-IAS). In South Africa she sat on the Women’s Development Bank (WDBT) advisory board and was a founding member of the Mapungubwe Institute (MISTRA) - a think tank. Previously she sat on the transitional task team to form Future Earth - a global platform of science for society and sustainability, and was a member of the inaugural Science Advisory Board of the UN Secretary General (UNSG -SAB).
After her formal education she carried out natural resource management, land use and agricultural projects and research at local levels including in Zambia and Zimbabwe, and on her return to South Africa worked for an environmental NGO that engaged in a number of rural projects. After South Africa’s democracy in 1994 she became chief director in the Presidency on the implementation of the Reconstruction and Development Programme (RDP), and later deputy DG in the national environmental department responsible for Resource Use covering biodiversity, heritage, marine and coastal management and tourism.
Between 2000 and 2006 she was CEO of the Tourism Business Council of SA (TBCSA) and from 2007 and 2017 she led the South African Biodiversity Institute (SANBI) whose mandate included leading the biodiversity information management system, heading the human capital and job creation effort for the green sector and initiating and running the implementing entities for the Global Adaptation Fund (GAF) and the Green Climate Fund (GCF) for South Africa.
Now retired from formal employment, she is keen to use her long experience and knowledge to support institutions and organizations that have a mission to overcome the challenges to sustainable development.
