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	Mission Statement
	Strategy Papers
	Organisational Structure
	History
	IWGIA's Activities
	Annual Reports
	Support IWGIA
	Membership
	Contact IWGIA

Espen Wæhle (born 1954, Norwegian) Espen Wæhle has been a board member since 1980, and was last re-elected in 2006. Was elected chair of the board in 2006. I am a social anthropologist, educated at the University of Oslo in 1989. My field research (1982-83) has been dealing with the Efe (Mbuti Pygmies) and the neighbouring Lese Dese of the Ituri Forest, in the Democratic Republic of Congo. I have been active in the Norwegian chapter of IWGIA since 1977-1990 and joined IWGIA's international Board in 1980. I was also active in setting up the Norwegian Rainforest Foundation (1989) and served in two different capacities as board member (1989-91, 1993-1998). From 1992-1995 I was on the advisory board of the Indigenous Peoples Programme at FAFO International in Oslo, Norway. In 1989-1991 I had two different jobs for the Norwegian Foreign Ministry working on issues dealing with environment and development, the longest period dealing with pastoral societies in Mali, Sudan, Eritrea and Ethiopia. From 1992 I have worked in museums, first the Ethnographic Museum of the University of Oslo (1992-98) and since I have been the head/keeper of the Ethnographic Collection of the National Museum of Denmark in Copenhagen. Through my work in IWGIA, international museum organizations (ICME/ICOM, EEMDG), the Norwegian Foreign Ministry (NORAD) I have a longterm experience with international work related to development, human rights and indigenous peoples. In the museum world I have dealt with issues relating to international cooperation and exchange, repatriation, illegal trade in cultural goods and cultural property discussions. I have been teaching and also publishing a number of articles and photographs on indigenous issues, hunter-gatherers, nomadism/pastoralism and museum anthropology – and I have participated in making over 50 exhibitions, a number of them on indigenous peoples. At the moment I am carrying out research related to the Scandinavians participating in the colonization of Congo (1870'ies to 1930'ies).

Diana Vinding Diana Vinding was elected board member in November 2005 and was elected vice-chair in 2006. I am a graduate in Political Science (University of Paris) and an anthropologist (University of Copenhagen). I have been working with development issues for the past 25 years as a tutor in the Department of International Development Studies at Roskilde University Centre, as a programme coordinator in a Danish development NGO (Ibis) and as an independent consultant. My relationship with IWGIA goes back to the late 1970s where I worked as a part time editorial secretary. During the 1980s I was on several occasions temporarily employed in the secretariat, before finally joining the staff in the early 1990s. I retired from my daily work at IWGIA by the end of 2005. At IWGIA I have held various positions, working consecutively as regional programme coordinator for Africa (with special focus on southern Africa), and Latin America (with special focus on Central America), and as responsible for IWGIA's activities in the Pacific. For the past four years I have been the coordinating editor of The Indigenous World.

Thomas Skielboe Thomas Skielboe was elected board member November 2007 for the period 2008-2011 Thomas Skielboe, (born in 1960 in Copenhagen). I am educated as a Social Anthropologist, (University of Copenhagen in 1992). During my studies I was active in several campaigns organized through IWGIA and I was, in the beginning of the 1980’ties, part of the group to form the IWGIA local group in Copenhagen. Since 1990 I have been Director in the Nordic Agency for Development and Ecology, NORDECO, of which I was one of the founders. NORDECO is an international consulting and project management company, specialized in sustainable development initiatives. NORDECO is wholly owned by the non-profit Nordic Foundation for Development and Ecology. I have specifically been working with one of NORDECOs main focus areas, Indigenous peoples and local development. NORDECO is working together with several indigenous organizations and communities throughout the world (Africa, Asia, Arctic, Russia, and South America), in the development and management of projects and research targeting important issues like: indigenous territories and demarcation processes, natural resource management, conflict resolution and local development, development of inter-cultural health systems. I have, as a consultant, during the years been involved in the development, management and evaluation of several indigenous peoples projects managed by NGO’s (including some of IWGIAs work) as well as by Danida and other donors. NORDECO has, since the founding of the company, had a productive and fruitful collaboration with IWGIA. I find that the two organizations are equally benefiting from the different approaches of a consultancy company and an NGO. I have thorough working experience in the following countries: Bolivia, Chile, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Ghana, Laos (Lao PDR), Nicaragua, Peru, Russia, Vietnam.

Mark Nuttall Mark Nuttall has been a board member since 2003. An anthropologist, Mark Nuttall has lived and worked in Greenland, Alaska and Scotland. He now lives in western Canada and is Henry Marshall Tory Professor of Anthropology at the University of Alberta. His work is mainly concerned with resource use rights, climate change impacts on indigenous peoples and livelihoods, and the participation of indigenous peoples in international Arctic political fora. He is working closely with indigenous peoples' organisations as a lead author for two key Arctic Council projects, the Arctic Climate Impact Assessment (ACIA) and the Arctic Human Development Report (AHDR), as well as sitting on the steering committees of both projects. He is also a lead author of the 'Polar Systems' chapter of the Millenium Ecosystem Assessment. He organised the 12th Inuit Studies Conference at the University of Aberdeen in 2000, and was one of the organisers of the 6th Circumpolar Universities Co-operation Conference, also held in Aberdeen in 1999. He is author of Arctic Homeland: kinship, community and development in northwest Greenland (1992), White Settlers: the impact of rural repopulation in Scotland (1996) and Protecting the Arctic: indigenous peoples and cultural survival (1998), editor of the three-volume Encyclopedia of the Arctic (2005), and co-editor of The Arctic: environment, people, policy (2000) and Cultivating Arctic Landscapes: knowing and managing animals in the circumpolar North (2003). Current committee/board work includes: Chair, International Scientific Advisory Board on Northern Research, University of Oulu, Finland Member, Canadian Climate Impacts and Adaptation Research Network (C-CIARN) Advisory Board (Fisheries Node) Member, Arctic Council Arctic Climate Impact Assessment Steering Committee International Arctic Science Committee (IASC) representative, Arctic Council Arctic Human Development Report Steering Committee Member, Northern Researchers Advisory Committee (NRAC), University of Alberta Member Editorial Board Etudes/Inuit/Studies Member Editorial Board Polar Record

Maria Teresa Quispe Maria Teresa Quispe has been a board member since 2004 and was reelected for a new period in November 2007 Maria Teresa Quispe was born in Peru in 1972 and moved to Venezuela in 1985. She studied sociology at the "Andres Bello" Catholic University in Venezuela, graduating in 1994. She is coordinator of the technical team at the Indigenous Regional Organization of the Venezuelan Amazon (ORPIA), where she has worked for the past five years developing ORPIA´s projects on the promotion and defence of indigenous rights. Quispe has worked as a coordinator on and consultant to various social development projects. From 1993 to 1997 she worked at the Latin American Research Institute (German Ebert Foundation), participating in the design and evaluation of a number of government poverty reduction projects involving topics such as: working children, indigenous peoples and frontier workers. During 1997 she worked at the Venezuelan Social Investment Fund (Public Sector) on a program, financed by the Inter-American Development Bank and the Government of Venezuela, to guarantee adequate social investment in the indigenous communities of the Venezuelan Amazon. It is since then that Quispe has been committed to indigenous issues and this is why she has been living in the Amazon and working for ORPIA. She has also been adviser to the Venezuelan indigenous deputy, Guillermo Guevara, for the last seven years, and has been involved in several external evaluations of different projects in Chile, Peru and the Philippines (the latter being an IWGIA project). Quispe has collaborated on several publications produced by IWGIA, the "Andres Bello" Catholic University and the Ebert Foundation.

Robert K. Hitchcock Robert K. Hitchcock was elected board member in November 2005 Robert K. Hitchcock is a professor of Anthropology and the Chair of the Department of Anthropology at Michigan State University, USA. He has worked with San peoples in Botswana, Namibia, and Zimbabwe for the past 30 years. In addition, he has worked with indigenous peoples in Hawaii, California, Canada, the Great Plains, and the southwest, as well as with various groups in eastern and central Africa (e.g. in Somalia, Uganda, and Gabon). Currently, he is doing a book on indigenous peoples' rights for Routledge, and he is the co-editor, with Diana Vinding, of Indigenous Peoples' Rights in Southern Africa (IWGIA, 2004). He has worked for IWGIA on the evaluation of programs aimed at assisting San peoples in Botswana. He is a member of the Board and past co-president of the Kalahari Peoples Fund (KPF), an advocacy organization that provides assistance to San and other peoples of southern Africa. At present, Hitchcock is working with Sudanese and Ogoni refugees who have resettled in the Great Plains of the United States, and with Native Americans involved in resource management programs.