Ms Carly Ruth COWELL

Senior Science Policy Advisor

Carly is Head of the CITES Scientific Authority for Flora in the UK and a Senior Policy Advisor at Royal Botanic Gardens Kew. Carly has been with RBG Kew for 3 years and represented the UK at CoP18. Prior to this she worked for the South Africa National Parks and was an expert member of the South African Scientific Authority. Her current position involves research with policy and management relevance in the fields of illegal wildlife trade, access and benefit sharing and biocultural heritage. Currently she is working on highlighting the issue of plant blindness and the recognition of plants in illegal trade and understanding cybercrime in the trafficking of CITES species. Carly has a PhD from Cape Town University (Natural and Cultural Heritage and Conservation) and a broad interest in biology, ecology, ecosystem management and conservation policy.