Brief Biography
Descartes is a plant production engineer. He leads various activities of the Implementation and Facilitation Unit (IFU), including coordinating the Implementation and Capacity Development Committee (IC) and its decisions, the Implementation Review and Support System (IRSS) as well as IC subgroup on IRSS, Dispute Avoidance and Settlement. He also supports the working groups on eLearning for export and inspection, facilitates collaboration between the Standards and Capacity Development Committees as well as delivery of the IPPC regional workshops. Descartes is the IPPC liaison with the Intern-American Institute for Cooperation on Agriculture (IICA). Prior to joining the IPPC in 2019, Descartes served in the Ministry of Agriculture in Gabon and at the FAO sub-regional office for Central Africa. He has a master's degree in environment management from the University of St. Jerome, France and a bachelor’s degree from the National Institute of Agronomy and Biotechnology in Gabon. Descartes speaks English and French.