Nathalie Simoneau

Director, Gender and Social Inclusion

Nathalie Simoneau
Media inquiries: News And Press Page

Nathalie is a director for Gender and Social Inclusion at WWF. She joined the organization in 2010 as part of the People and Conservation team working on population, health, and environment (PHE) initiatives. Her background in public health nutrition and food security, working with the most marginalized groups in various countries of Asia and with Indigenous Peoples in Northern Canada, brought a wealth of knowledge and expertise to help address challenging issues at the nexus of health, development, and conservation in WWF projects/programs. Then, in 2012 she joined the Forest Team, focusing on the Congo Basin program, raising awareness and capacity of staff and partners for proper application of WWF’s social policies into all our on-the-ground work and for policy advocacy as well.

Nathalie currently supports WWF conservation programming globally ensuring the design, implementation, and evaluation of initiatives properly mainstream a human rights-based approach and apply our social policies at all levels in our work. She also leads the roll-out of the Environmental and Social Safeguards Framework in a variety of countries in Asia and Africa. She provides strategic and technical guidance and supports policy and advocacy efforts through various international platforms and collaborative groups, to influence the adoption of integrated approaches in conservation programs. Through this work, Nathalie is committed to ensuring WWF’s initiatives are equitable, inclusive, empowering, and sustainable and that they contribute to improving the living condition of the most vulnerable, including women, youth, Indigenous Peoples, and other minority groups, to achieve better human wellbeing and conservation outcomes.

“I believe that the best and most sustainable conservation solutions happen when we apply a holistic approach to our work, as we try to solve the biggest challenges our planet and its people face. This means putting people at the center of our work, listening to them, giving them a voice, respecting their rights, needs and aspirations while using an inclusive approach to engage the most marginalized groups, is the only way we will truly succeed at our goal, striving to have people live in harmony with nature. ”

More on Nathalie

Title

Director

Education

  • B.Sc. – Human Nutrition – McGill University, Montreal, Quebec, Canada
  • M.Sc. - Public Health Nutrition – Center for Indigenous Peoples Nutrition and Environment (CINE), McGill University

Areas of Expertise

  • Inclusive conservation
  • Social Policies and Environmental and Social Safeguards
  • Integrated health and environment approaches
  • Capacity building
  • Public health, nutrition, and food security