H. E. Dr. Edgar Gutierrez-Espeleta
President of the 2th session of the UN Environment Assembly (UNEA-2), and Minister for Environment and Energy of Costa Rica
H. E. Dr. Edgar Gutierrez-Espeleta is the Minister for Environment and Energy of Costa Rica and President of the 2nd session of the UN Environment Assembly (UNEA-2). Dr. Gutierrez-Espeleta worked as a professor at the University of Costa Rica, was cofounder of the National Rectors Council of Costa Rica "State of the Nation" project, and was founder of the Observatory for Development at the University of Costa Rica where he served as its director until 2005. His previous positions include Director of the School of Statistics and the Director of the Graduate Program in Statistics at the University of Costa Rica. He was also the coordinator for the "Atlas de Desarrollo Humano Cantonal" --"Atlas of Cantonal Human Development --project, a joint initiative with UNDP. Dr. Gutierrez-Espeleta has authored over 30 scientific articles in national and international journals as well as a book on statistical methods. He has represented Costa Rica in several United Nations agencies and regional ministerial forums. Dr. Gutierrez-Espeleta led the first two United Nations Environment Programme reports on the status of the environment in Latin America and the Caribbean, the first environmental report in Central America, and the deck of environmental data for Latin America and the Caribbean. He also directed the National Environmental Strategy of Costa Rica in 2005 (A project developed by the Costa Rican Ministry of Environment and Energy and Inter-American Development Bank). His research areas of interest include sustainable development, development of indicators and index, human security, environmental change and public higher education. Dr. Gutierrez-Espeleta holds a Bachelor’s degree in Statistical Science from the University of Costa Rica, a Master of Science in Forest Biometry from Iowa State University, and a Ph.D. in Forest Biometry from Iowa State University.