For a complete Curriculum Vitae see: Fuller cv

Stephan Fuller is a sustainable development consultant focusing on strategic planning, institutional strengthening and capacity development, project management and monitoring and evaluation. Recent clients have included the World Bank, Asian Development Bank, United Nations agencies including UNDP, UNEP, UNOPS, bilateral development donors such as the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA), USAID, the European Union, DFID, and the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC). Projects have been completed within Canada for the Government of Canada, International Institute for Sustainable Development (IISD), the governments of Yukon, British Columbia, Ontario and Newfoundland and Labrador. Non-government clients have included CARE, IUCN, WWF and other international and Canadian NGOs, and aboriginal organizations.

An experienced international development project leader and manager, he has served as a Team Leader or Specialist Consultant on projects in Jordan, China, Iran, Kazakhstan, Afghanistan, Ukraine, Lebanon, Eritrea, Tajikistan, Bahrain, Georgia, the Philippines, and in Canada since 2004. In 2003 he was involved in Kamchatka, Russia with UNDP/GEF in China with the World Bank, Bhutan with UNDP, and Iran with UNDP and GEF, and with the Canadian Environmental Assessment Agency. In 2002 he began an ongoing environmental capacity development programme design project with CIDA; and engaged with IUCN Pakistan, SDC and NORAD in strategic planning in the Northern Areas of Pakistan (the Northern Areas Strategy for Sustainable Development) and biodiversity conservation projects in the HinduKush-Karakoram-Himalayas mountain ranges. He also undertook a UNDP/GEF project in northern Pakistan with the Mountain Areas Conservancy Project. In 2001 he completed a major assignment as Team Leader with a UNDP/GEF biodiversity conservation project in western China on the Qinghai Tibet plateau.

Mr. Fuller served as Chief Technical Advisor to IUCN – the World Conservation Union and the Swiss Agency for Development and Co-operation (SDC) living full-time in Peshawar, Pakistan from 1992-97. Much of this work was in the highly challenging North West Frontier Province (NWFP) facilitating appropriate conservation and sustainable development strategies for the remote areas of Pakistan and Afghanistan. He also provided management and planning support for biodiversity, co-management, protected areas and other environmental and forest resource management initiatives in the many parts of the western Himalayas. He helped to complete program design tasks for IUCN project proposals in Pakistan (Northern Areas Conservation Strategy), in Nepal (environmental assessment), Sri Lanka (biodiversity) and India (institutional reform). He was part of the IUCN project management team for the implementation of the Pakistan National Conservation Strategy, and the ($15 million) CIDA Pakistan Environment Project.

Mr. Fuller is a also a leading advocate of community involvement in natural resources management, collaborative management of protected areas and the search for global poverty alleviation solutions and alternative livelihood options in underdeveloped areas. He has demonstrated international experience both within Canada as well as Pakistan and China related to community involvement in natural resource management and planning and management and collaborative management processes. He was the principal organizer of IUCN's work on the Central Karakoram National Park and its proposed co-management scheme and was also a contributor to the IUCN report Collaborative Management of Protected Areas: Tailoring the Approach to the Context. He has similarly contributed to a variety of IUCN, UNESCO and UNEP (among others) publications and other initiatives to promote co-management approaches in natural resources sectors. He has recently returned from projects in China (in the Tibetan Ruoergai high altitude wetlands) and Pakistan where he authored a report on community involvement in alternative livelihoods for the Gojal, Qashqar and Tirich Mir Nature Conservancies (part of the UNDP GEF funded Mountain Areas Conservancy Project. He has undertaken a wide variety of pro bono and volunteer involvements related to community involvement in his home areas in British Columbia, Yukon and Ontario in Canada.

As a senior public sector manager (1985-1993) with 15 multidisciplinary staff and a $1.5 million budget, Mr. Fuller was responsible for an extensive set of institutional reforms in the Yukon, during the negotiation of the Yukon First Nations Final Settlement Act. He was responsible for the design, implementation and management of the new Policy, Planning and Assessment Branch of the Yukon Department of Renewable Resources; new environmental legislation, policy and regulations; the negotiation of agreements related to environmental assessment; protected areas; the devolution of several areas of federal government responsibility to the Yukon agency; and development of new tools for the implementation of the Yukon Protected Areas Strategy. Other specific tasks included the advancement of Biosphere Reserve proposals for the Coal River Springs Territorial Park and Kluane National Park, and negotiation of the land claims-based new protected areas such as Vuntat National Park, the Old Crow Special Management Area, and the Fishing Branch Game Reserve. He undertook a wide variety of special cross-cultural projects with individual First Nations.

Mr. Fuller has over 25 years of experience in parks and protected areas planning and management. He has been a member of the IUCN - World Commission on Protected Areas since 1981 with professional experience in western and northern Canada, South America, Europe, Russia, China and West and South Asia. At present, he is actively involved with initiatives in Russia and Pakistan and Afghanistan. From 1997-2001 he played a significant role in protected areas initiatives in Ontario and Newfoundland and Labrador and with IUCN – the World Conservation Union and WWF International. He has also undertaken pro bono advocacy projects to complete park systems plans, in British Columbia, the Yukon and Ontario. He has been and active participant in the international efforts to establish conservation corridors such as the Yellowstone to Yukon initiative and in mountain environments in the western Himalayas. Professional assignments have ranged from technical input on management plans and threats analyses to system planning and corridor analyses. He also has extensive experience in the design and implementation of the UNESCO Biosphere “model” for protected areas, World heritage Sites, and in the design and implementation of public involvement and local community participation processes for protected areas. He has extensive experience working with aboriginal and First Nations groups in Canada, South America and the Himalayas.

Mr. Fuller has substantial experience the design and implementation of public participation processes including: design and facilitation of a community strategic environmental planning process for the City of Kingston, Ontario; design and implementation of public involvement processes for the Yukon Conservation Strategy and the Yukon Environment Act; implementation of public participation and public hearing processes in the Yukon, Mackenzie Valley and Northwest passage communities in Arctic Canada; design of a public participation process for the Thompson Fraser River Corridor Planning Study; representation of the Federation of Mountain Clubs of BC and the Outdoor Recreation Council of BC in several government public involvement and public hearing processes for wilderness preservation and parks and protected areas initiatives; evaluation of public participation processes for Alcan Aluminum Ltd; and design of a public involvement program for the Royal Commission on Pacific Fisheries Policy.

Teaching assignments have included full course responsibilities at both community college and university levels in Canada (Kwantlen College, Yukon College) including climatology, geomorphology, northern research methods, conservation history and environmental ethics. Numerous guest lectures have been presented including McMaster University, UBC, Simon Fraser University, University of Peshawar, Quaid-e-Azam University and Queen’s University at Kingston, among others.

Mr. Fuller also has extensive practical field experience in mountain environments and is fully trained in technical mountaineering, wilderness travel, first aid and mountain rescue. He has participated in over twenty high altitude mountaineering expeditions in North America, South America, Europe and Asia.