Jean-Luc Chotte, Senior Scientist at IRD, has been appointed Chairman of the French Scientific Committee on Desertification by the French Ministry of Higher Education, Research and Innovation for a three-year term.
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This new mandate will give him the opportunity to strengthen the land issue on the international agenda and to promote CSFD as a Science-Policy-Society interface. “According to my experience in the Science-Policy Interface (SPI) of the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD), my knowledge of research issues and my conviction of the need to mobilize all stakeholders in land issues, I am aware of our future challenges: consolidating our achievement, connecting the land agenda to other initiatives (biodiversity, climate, ecosystem restoration, food security) at national and international level as well as consolidating CSFD’s place within the Science-Policy-Society interface.

Jean-Luc’s work aims at understanding processes that determine the organic carbon dynamics in tropical agricultural soils. After working 10 years in Senegal, he has worked in several programs and various Sahelian countries. He was elected in 2015 to the UNCCD Committee on Science and Technology as the “Western European and Others Group countries” representative and he participated in SPI works (2016-2017).

Jean-Luc is based in Montpellier, France (Eco&Sols research unit). He is a corresponding member of the French Academy of Agriculture, a member of the “4 pour 1000” Initiative Bureau and a CSFD member since 2017. He led several research units, including Eco&Sols, from 2011 to 2018.

Jean-Luc Chotte succeeds Robin Duponnois, who has held this position since 2017.