keynote speakers | IENE 2024

Gaya Herrington

End of the road, or changing course away from a cliff? Sustainable futures in transportation

Gaya Herrington is a distinguished researcher specialized in environmental, social, behavioral, and economic fields, emphasizing the interplay between these domains and the requisite transformations for global sustainability. As a published author, she explores the importance of recognizing limits to growth and the potential for increasing global human and ecological well-being by shifting from perpetual growth to meeting human needs within planetary boundaries. Currently serving as the Vice President of Sustainability Research at Schneider Electric, Herrington has previously held roles such as a sustainability consultant at KPMG and a policy advisor to the Dutch government. She is a frequent speaker at international conferences, including the United Nations and TED, contributes as a guest lecturer at various universities and as an advisor to the Club of Rome. In her keynote at the IENE 2024, Herrington challenges the prevailing dogma within the transport sector that increasing mobility and expanding infrastructure hold the key to a prosperous future. She calls for rethinking transportation to cope with the emerging challenges of climate change, biodiversity loss and growing inequalities – a theme that will reverberate throughout the conference.

Ladislav Miko

European biodiversity on crossroads - strategically but also literally!

Ladislav Miko accomplished doctoral studies in biology, zoology and ecology. He held high positions at the Directorate-General for Health and Food Safety and Directorate-General for Environment of the European Commission. He was also the Minister of the Environment of the Czech Republic and worked at the Czech Environmental Inspectorate. He worked for Slovak Academy of Sciences and currently teaches at the Antwerp University (Belgium) and the Faculty of Science at Charles University in Prague. He is the president of the Ekofilm international film festival and Advisor to the President of the Czech Republic for environmental issues. He lead the Czech and European delegations at the COP 15 of the Convention on Biological Diversity in 2022.

Marguerite Trocmé

Lessons learned from 35 years of road ecology

Marguerite Trocmé was born in 1961 grew up in Canada returning to Switzerland at 16. She did her Bachelor of Science in Biology in 1983, specializing in terrestrial ecosystems at Brown University, in Rhode Island USA and then received her Diploma as an environmental Engineer from the Ecole Polytechnique of Lausanne in 1985, specializing in soil science and ecotoxicology. From 1985 to1988 she worked for the World Wildlife Fund Switzerland and for the Swiss Ornithological Institute in Sempach. From 1989 to 2007 she worked at the Swiss Federal Office for the Environment, reviewing the impact of infrastructure projects on nature and landscape. She began specializing ever more on transport infrastructure issues, participating in the first fauna passage projects in the early 1990’s and in launching the Swiss defragmentation program. This finally led her in 2008 to move to the Federal Road Office, taking the position of Head of environmental technology. She also participated as of 2002 in writing environmental standards for the Association for road engineers (VSS), presiding the Commission 2.6 on “Green areas and fauna” for 10 years. She was also Chief Editor for the COST 341 action European Review on Habitat Fragmentation du to transport infrastructure. She is involved in many applied research projects, the latest on biodiversity friendly mowing machines, the utilization of AI for censusing invasive plants along roads and has initiated many environmental guidelines for roads.

Edgar van der Grift

Evaluating road mitigation effectiveness: The road ahead of us

Edgar A. van der Grift studied biology at Wageningen University and currently works as a senior research scientist at Wageningen University & Research in The Netherlands. In his research he focuses on the impacts of habitat fragmentation on wildlife populations and the effectiveness of measures that aim to restore habitat connectivity, e.g., the establishment of landscape linkages, ecological corridors, ecological networks and wildlife crossing structures at roads and railroads. Besides his scientific research he acts as a consultant for policy makers, road planners and conservation groups during the preparation and implementation phases of projects that aim for the establishment of effective ecological networks and road mitigation measures. He is involved in the development of design principles for ecological corridors and the implementation of ecological knowledge in national and regional transportation policy. Edgar presents his research at scientific conferences and symposia. Furthermore he frequently acts as guest speaker during meetings with practitioners and the general public. He publishes his research in both scientific and popular-scientific journals and at internet fora. He also frequently presents research findings in the media, such as national and regional TV and radio networks, and in newspapers. He is a member of the Scientific and Expert Committee of IENE that aims to share knowledge and best practices in road ecology and encourage international collaboration.

Václav Hlaváč

Fauna protection during transport and energy infrastructure development in the Czech Republic

Václav studied forestry at Mendel University in Brno, but soon after the graduation he started working for the Nature Conservation Agency of the Czech Republic – first as a zoologist, later as the director for the Vysočina region. He has devoted his entire professional life to the protection of endangered species. His work on otter protection forced him to deal with the impact of traffic on animals. During his work in rescue programme for peregrine falcon he became familiar with the problem of protecting birds of pray on power lines. He gradually became an expert on the issues of habitat fragmentation, ecological connectivity, the protection of migration corridors and the protection of fauna in contact with transport and energy infrastructure. In his work for nature conservation, he strives for close cooperation between Nature Conservation and the Directorate of Roads and Highways, as well as electricity distributors. He is an author of many methodologies, handbooks, guidelines and scientific articles focused on ecological connectivity, the conflict between fauna protection and transport, and on fauna protection in connection with electricity distribution. He participated in many international projects. He has been a member of IENE since 1999.