Salvatore Aricò is Senior Programme Specialist for Biodiversity Assessments and Inter-Agency Coordination at UNESCO’s Natural Sciences Sector and a Senior Visiting Research Fellow at the UNU Institute of Advanced Studies. He holds a Ph.D. in Environment and Resources from the Stazione Zoologica ‘Anton Dohrn’ of Naples, Italy. His previous experience includes Chief of the Jakarta Mandate on Marine Biodiversity Unit at the Convention on Biological Diversity; Researcher at the Gerard J. Mangone Center for Marine Policy, University of Delaware, USA; and Associate Expert at the Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission. Aricò has also been invited expert to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change Fifth Assessment Report Scoping Meeting; Co-chair of the Working Group on High Seas, Global Forum on Oceans, Coasts and Islands; and board member, contributor author and reviewer of the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment. He has published numerous scientific and policy publications and has lectured in France, Italy, Japan, Lebanon and the US.