Belinda Reyers

Dr Belinda Reyers is a Professor of Sustainability Science at the University of Pretoria in South Africa and a Research Affiliate of the Beijer Institute of Ecological Economics at The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences. Prof Reyers works to bridge social-ecological systems research and sustainable development practice to help build understanding and capacity needed to navigate the dynamic and interdependent development challenges facing Southern Africa. She worked as a Chief Scientist at the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research in Stellenbosch, South Africa until 2015 when she moved to Sweden to be the Director of the GRAID Resilience and Development program at the Stockholm Resilience Centre. She returned to South Africa in 2018 to take up the Research Chair in Sustainability Science at Future Africa in Pretoria.

Her publications include over 100 articles in scientific journals and chapters in books. She has secured and led several large international project grants to build knowledge, methods, collaborations, policy context and capacity in the Southern African region. Prof Reyers plays a number of advisory and leadership roles to national and international bodies including: past Vice Chair of the Science Committee of Future Earth; Coordinating Lead Author and Review Editor of the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES), UN-DESA Expert Groups on the Sustainable Development Goals, Advisory Group of the Welcome Trust: Sustainable and Healthy Food Systems global consortium and of the Montpellier Advanced Knowledge Institute on Transitions. She was recently appointed onto the advisory board of the UNDP Human Development Report 2021 and onto the High-Level Advisory Panel (HLAP) for the Special Report on Human Security by the Human Development Report Office.