David is an environmental planning and policy expert, with over 15 years of experience in environmental policy development. His professional background is in local and regional government in New Zealand, where he worked on water and flooding issues in Christchurch in his early career and then later was Senior Specialist – Policy in northern New Zealand where he worked in urban, strategic, and catchment planning, including several advisory and governance roles in catchment management groups. 

Most recently, he provided water resources and climate change adaptation services as an expert within the African Water Facility in Cote D’Ivoire. He is highly interested in the application of ecosystem services into watershed and regional planning as well as governance frameworks that strongly incorporate indigenous perspectives.