2025: From soil science to policy : Harnessing the biodiversity beneath our feet for a climate-resilient future

Giulia Bongiorno is a lecturer and researcher in the Soil Biology group (SBL) at Wageningen University (WUR), with a focus on the role of soil biota in soil processes and functions. Her interest and work lies in monitoring and counteracting the negative effects of intensive agricultural practices on soils. She has worked mainly in agricultural systems within and outside Europe, from arables and perennials to agroforestry. Her work during these years ignited her interest in the role of agriculture in the broader economic and societal context, and in the important of soil literacy,  outreach and multidisciplinary projects and collaborations. Since March 2024 she is also the outreach supporter of the WUR Soil Science Cluster.

Tassos Haniotis recently retired, after a 33-year career in the Commission, as the Director of Strategy, Simplification and Policy Analysis in the Directorate General for Agriculture of the European Commission. Tassos is Sustainable Productivity Adviser for the Forum for the Future of Agriculture and a Senior Guest Research Scholar at the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis. He previously held posts as Head of Unit in the Agricultural Policy Analysis and Perspectives unit and the Agricultural Trade Policy Analysis unit in the same Directorate General, as Member and subsequently Deputy Head of the Cabinet of former European Commissioner for Agriculture Franz Fischler (with respective responsibilities the preparation of the 2003 reform of the Common Agricultural Policy, and the agricultural chapter of the Doha WTO Round and the EU-Mercosur negotiations), and as the Agricultural Counsellor of the European Commission’s Delegation in the United States. He holds Ph.D. and M.S. degrees in Agricultural Economics from the University of Georgia, USA, and a B.A. in Economics from the Athens University of Economics and Business, in his native Greece. Before joining the European Commission, he spent six months as a visiting Fellow at the Centre for European Agricultural Studies, Wye College, University of London, focusing on EU-US agricultural trade relations in the Uruguay Round of GATT negotiations. He hold a Honorary Doctorate degree from the University of Thessaloniki. Active in the ag research community, he is a member of the International and European Associations of Ag Economics, the International Agricultural Trade Research Consortium, and the EU Nitrogen Expert Panel.

Tobias Möllney studied Socioeconomics at the University of Hamburg (B.A.) and Environmental and Resource Economics at the Christian-Albrechts-Universität zu Kiel (M.Sc.) from 2015 to 2022. Since December 2022 he is junior researcher at the Institute for Ecological Economy Research (IÖW) in the research field “Ecological Economics and Environmental Policy”. Core focus of his work is the spatially explicit analysis and valuation of ecosystem services, primarily regulating services of urban greenery and green climate adaptation measures. To underpin consideration of these essential contributions of nature to human wellbeing in public debate and policymaking an essential part of his work is the development of intuitive visualizations and interactive tools to make their abstract values more tangible.

Ana Rocha currently leads the Policy team at the ELO and follows policies affecting agriculture and forestry in Europe. She holds a degree in agricultural engineering, having studied in Portugal, Belgium and the Netherlands. She has consolidated professional experience in EU lobbying, representing the interests of European landowners and land managers for more than ten years, in Brussels and in London. She remains involved in a small family farm in Portugal.

Alberto Arroyo Schnell is Head of Programme and Policy at the European Regional Office of the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN). He has been in leading positions on EU environmental policy during the past two decades. His current focus includes working together with the key sectors related to / impacted by / benefiting from biodiversity and nature, aiming to find ways to achieve the environmental targets jointly and to ensure ownership of these targets by all stakeholders. He has a background in Forestry Engineering.

More information
Website – www.iucn.org
Twitter – @IUCNBrussels
Facebook – iucnbrussels
LinkedIn – alberto-arroyo-schnel

Mark has enjoyed a long career in the agri-food sector having previously worked at the United Nations and for Syngenta where he held a number of senior leadership positions in corporate affairs and business sustainability in the EAME region and globally. After leaving Syngenta in 2017, Mark became Chief Executive of EngineeringUK, a not-for-profit organisation dedicated to inspiring and nurturing STEM skills in young people. Mark later became Head of Marketing and Public Affairs for Indigo Agriculture Europe GmbH. Mark is a co-founder and senior adviser to the Forum for the Future of Agriculture and a Senior Fellow at the Transatlantic Policy Network.

Dr. Nataliya Zinych is the Corporate Public Affairs Manager at John Deere. John Deere is a global leader in manufacturing modern agricultural equipment and precision agriculture technologies.

Nataliya joined John Deere in 2009 and has held several positions before assuming her current role in Corporate Public Affairs Europe. Most of her time, she is based in Germany.

A native of Ukraine, Nataliya studied Agricultural Economics and Agribusiness Management. She earned her PhD in Agricultural Economics from Humboldt University of Berlin. Before joining John Deere, Nataliya worked as a University Program Coordinator, Lecturer, and Research Fellow in both Ukraine and Germany.

Nataliya is actively involved with the European Agricultural Machinery Association (CEMA), participating in its Strategic Committee and the High-Level Group CO2, focusing on alternative fuels, carbon farming, and soil health. She is also engaged with several other associations, including the German Agricultural Machinery Association (VDMA) and the German Agribusiness Alliance.