Leen Vandepitte

Experience

• 

  VLIZ - Flanders Marine Institute

  Apr 2005 - now

  Senior Scientist

  data manager of the European Ocean Biodiversity Information System (EurOBIS), the World Register of Marine Species (WoRMS) & the Interim Register of Marine & Non-marine Genera (IRMNG)

• 

  United Nations World Ocean Assessment

  Jan 2019 - now

  Pool of Experts Member

  Released in April 2021, The second World Ocean Assessment (WOAII) was the main output of the second cycle of the Regular Process for Global Reporting and Assessment of the States of the Marine Environment, including Socioeconomic Aspects which ran from 2016 to 2020. It was a collective effort of interdisciplinary writing teams made up of more than 300 experts, drawn from a pool of over 780 experts from around the world, and managed by the United Nations Division for Ocean Affairs and the Law of the Sea (DOALOS). As the only integrated assessment of the ocean across all three pillars of sustainable development, the WOA serves as a basis for Governments and policy-makers worldwide to make informed decisions surrounding ocean issues. The assessment helps guide the implementation of the ocean-related goals within the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, as well as the sustainable management of human activities that affect the ocean as a whole. Show less