Members of the interim Bureau

• Francesco Sindico, Co-chair 

Francesco Sindico is a member of the IWRA Executive Board and a Professor at the University of Strathclyde Law School in Glasgow where he founded and was Director for ten years of the Strathclyde Centre for Environmental Law and Governance (SCELG). From an islands’ perspective his work centres on the role of law in promoting public participation towards greater sustainability and resilience. From a freshwater perspective, his research focuses mainly on the international law of transboundary aquifers and water governance. Francesco is currently on secondment with the Scottish Government (since September 2021) where he leads the Carbon Neutral Islands Project. Francesco is also the co-chair of the IUCN World Commission on Environmental Law Climate Change Law Specialist Group and a Director of the Climate Change Litigation Initiative (C2LI). Francesco has experience in advising governments and international organisations before international courts and contributing to capacity building programmes in developing countries.

• Milika Sobey, Co-chair

Dr Milika Naqasima Sobey is an indigenous Fijian who currently works as a Technical Adviser-Coastal Ecosystems for GIZ Pacific. Milika was an academic for 20 years, teaching and conducting research at the University of the South Pacific.  Her research interests included nutrient cycling, fisheries, coral reef ecology and water quality.    She has worked at IUCN Oceania managing donor funded Climate Change Adaptation projects in Papua New Guinea, Solomon Islands, Vanuatu, Fiji, Samoa and Tonga.  For freshwater systems, Milika has worked on water quality monitoring, freshwater fisheries, catchment management and most recently on the political economy of the water sector in select Pacific Island countries.  Milika was one of the founding members of the Women in Fisheries Network and continues to do voluntary work for Nature Fiji-Mareqeti Viti and Fiji Environmental Law Association. 

• Manuel Sapiano 

Manuel Sapiano is the Chief Executive Officer of the Energy and Water Agency (EWA) within Malta’s Ministry for the Environment, Energy and Enterprise.  In this role, he coordinates a team of experts with responsibilities for the formulation, evaluation, monitoring and implementation of national policies concerning the use of energy and water in a sustainable manner and the formulation of plans to meet National and EU energy and water resources management targets. Mr Sapiano is a hydrogeologist, with specific specialisation in island and coastal hydrology.  He has previously led the Agency’s Water Policy Unit, where he had the responsibility of coordinating the implementation process of EU related water legislation in the Maltese islands. He has been involved in the implementation process of the EU Water Framework Directive since 2002, where within the Common Implementation Strategy of this Directive, he fulfils the role of Water Director for Malta. 

• Óluva Eidesgaard 

Óluva holds a B.Sc. and a M.Sc. in Geology from Lunds University, Sweden and a Ph.D. from the University of Copenhagen. Since 2011 she has worked as a research geologist at the Faroese Geological Survey in Tórshavn, the Faroe Islands. Her research focus was initially on offshore petroleum exploration, logging interpretation, petrophysics and formation evaluation in volcanic basins but has expanded to incorporate onshore groundwater and geothermal energy matters the recent years, where she has been involved in a row of groundwater project. Additionally she is the project leader of one current groundwater project aiming to use groundwater as an energy source and for the recently funded and newly initiated project Investigation of the groundwater potential in the Faroe Islands.

• Ronald Roopmarine 

Dr. Ronald Roopnarine is a researcher and academic with a thorough background in Disaster Risk Resilience and Sustainable Land and Water Resource Management. Presently, Dr. Roopnarine is a Lecturer in the Faculty of Food and Agriculture, University of the West Indies, St. Augustine Campus (FFA, UWI) responsible for teaching and development of courses related to Agri-environmental Disaster Risk and Climate Resilience. He is also the Network Manager of Caribbean WaterNet, (Caribbean arm of CapNet UNDP) and a consultant for various international and regional developmental and state agencies. He has also served on numerous projects implemented by various UN agencies such as UN-water, UN- FAO, UN Environment and UNDP. Thus far he has amassed significant experience in Integrated Water Resources Management, Land management and Climate Change Adaptations, with specific focus on Caribbean Small Island Developing States.

• Kamanamaikalani Beamer

Dr. Kamanamaikalani Beamer is a full professor and the inaugural Dana Naone Hall Endowed Chair in Hawaiian Studies, Literature, & the Environment at Hawaiʻinuiākea School of Hawaiian Knowledge (HSHK) at the University of Hawaiʻi, Mānoa. He serves a dual appointment in HSHK and in the William S. Richardson School of Law, Ka Huli Ao Center for Excellence in Native Hawaiian Law. Dr. Beamer has multiple publications in the study of aloha ʻāina and the Circular Economy (CE). His books include No Mākou Ka Mana: Liberating the Nation (2014) and Islands & Cultures: How Pacific Islands Provide Paths Toward Sustainability (2022). He served two consecutive terms as a Commissioner on the Hawaiʻi State Water Resource Management Commission (2013-2021). After eight years of service, his accomplishments include restoring water to forty-five streams across Hawaiʻi and challenging the U.S. Navy on issues at Red Hill. Dr. Beamer is a father, organizer, and activist in movements to advance aloha ʻāina and water justice.