IUCN-US

Board Member

Lori Anna Conzo

Sr. Environmental Specialist / Global Biodiversity Lead, International Finance Corporation (IFC)

Lori Anna Conzo is a Senior Environmental Specialist / Global Biodiversity Lead for the International Finance Corporation (IFC), the private sector lending arm of the World Bank Group. Lori specializes in the development of mitigation and management strategies for biodiversity-related risks and impacts for private sector developments worldwide. She is the lead author of IFC’s Performance Standard (PS) 6, Biodiversity Conservation and Sustainable Management of Living Natural Resources (2012) and its accompanying Guidance Note (GN) 6, which now serves as the global benchmark for good practice in private sector biodiversity management, adopted by 80+ commercial banks and ~40 Export Credit Agencies. In this effort, Lori was instrumental in bringing together the views and participation of stakeholders across the ‘party lines’ of conservation organizations, industry, governmental agencies, financial institutions and academia. Lori has almost 20 years’ experience in the implementation of biodiversity management strategies and negotiations with industry ranging from the extractives, energy, infrastructure and agribusiness sectors. In this capacity, she has worked extensively in Sub-Saharan Africa, the Middle East, Eastern Europe, East Asia and the Pacific and Latin America. Prior to IFC, Lori conducted independent, third-party environmental and social due diligence and compliance monitoring of various large-scale private sector developments. Lori undertook her postgraduate studies in conservation biology at the University California, Berkeley.