Jamison Ervin

Manager of Nature for Development Program  – United Nations Development Programme (UNDP)

Jamison Ervin manages the Nature for Development team of UNDP, with the goal of putting nature at the heart of sustainable development. She provides overall project vision and leadership on the Mapping Nature for People and Planet project, including the UN Biodiversity Lab and the mapping of Essential Life Support Areas. Her aim is to help governments and communities use spatial data to transform how they make decisions, and to put nature at the heart of sustainable development.

Previous experience and expertise

Jamison Ervin has worked at the intersection of nature and development since 1990. She currently works at UNDP, focusing on enabling countries to develop a ‘Map of Hope’ for nature-dependent goals that puts nature at the heart of their decision-making. She also focuses on supporting local action around nature-based solutions, including leading UNDP’s Equator Initiative, on supporting governments in identifying nature-based solutions for climate, and on supporting action and ambition around protected areas. Her previous work is with The Nature Conservancy, the World Wildlife Fund for Nature, and the Forest Stewardship Council. She holds a Ph.D. in Natural Resources from the University of Vermont.

Recent work 

Jamison’s recent works include the following:

• Protecting 30 Percent of the planet: Costs, benefits and economic implications;
• Towards monitoring ecosystem integrity within the Post-2020 Global Biodiversity Framework;
• Forest quality mitigates extinction risk in humid tropical vertebrates; 
• A policy-driven framework for conserving the best of Earth’s remaining moist tropical forests.