Tai Kwun Conversations: UNESCO Series - Talk 2
Urban sustainability and resilience through nature and culture

Mee Kam Ng is Vice-chairman of the Department of Geography and Resource Management, Director of the Urban Studies Programme, Associate Director of the Institute of Future Cities, the Hong Kong Institute of Asian Pacific Studies at the Chinese University of Hong Kong. She is a fellow of the Royal Town Planning Institute, a fellow of the Hong Kong Institute of Planners and academic advisor of the Hong Kong Institute of Urban Design. She was elected as a Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences in the United Kingdom in 2016. In 2021, she was selected as an Honorary Member of the American Institute of Architects (AIA) Hong Kong Chapter. Her publications have earned her six Hong Kong Institute of Planners’ Awards and the 2015 Association of European Schools of Planning Best Published Paper Award. She has been consultant to the United Nations, the European Union and the Municipal Government of Shenzhen. The Urban Studies Programme she directed is a Member of the UN-Habitat’s World Urban Campaign, promoting the implementation of the New Urban Agenda.

Kotchakorn Voraakhom is a Thai landscape architect who works on productive public spaces, tackling climate change in urban dense areas. She created the first critical green infrastructure for Bangkok, Chulalongkorn University Centenary Park. Her works also include Thammasat Urban Farm Rooftop, the biggest urban farming green roof in Asia, and Chao Phraya Sky Park, the first bridge park across the river in any world capital.

She was awarded from UNFCCC for the UN Global Climate Action Awards, featured in 2019 TIME 100 Next, 15 leading women fighting against climate change from TIME, BBC 100 Women, and Bloomberg Green 30 for 2020. She is a Chairwoman of the Climate Change Working Group of the International Federation of Landscape Architects. She received a Master of Landscape Architecture from Harvard University. She is a TED Fellow and an Echoing Green Fellow.

Christine Loh, SBS, JP, OBE, is the Chief Development Strategist at the Institute for the Environment, Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HKUST). Previously, she held the positions of Special Consultant to the Office of the Chief Executive of the HKSAR Government on the ecological civilization aspects of the Greater Bay Area Outline Development Plan (2019-2020); and Under Secretary for the Environment in the HKSAR Government (2012-2017). She was the CEO of Civic Exchange, an independent non-profit public policy think tank (2000-2012). Before that, Prof. Loh served as a member of the Hong Kong Legislative Council, first appointed in 1992 and later elected in 1995 and 1998. Earlier, she spent 14 years in the private commercial sector in commodities trading.

Currently, she is a Director of New Forests Pty Limited, Towngas Smart Energy Company Limited, CDP Worldwide, and Global Maritime Forum. She is Advisor on Sustainability to the Hong Kong Science and Technology Park, Senior Advisor to TENEO, and a member of BASF’s Stakeholder Advisory Council. She is also a founding Advisor to Hong Kong Green Finance Association.

Wendy C. Atieno is the Programme Officer for Ecosystem-based Adaptation at IUCN’s Washington DC office. She supports the implementation of several adaptation and resilience projects through the Climate Change unit across a wide range of ecosystems. She works with country teams in Asia, Africa, and Latin America to strengthen the reciprocal relationship between global policy and action-on-ground through sharing evidence and knowledge, and linking action to policy. Wendy previously served as a Princeton in Asia fellow in IUCN Lao PDR (2013-2015), where she supported projects on transboundary water governance in the Lower Mekong region, and ecosystem-based adaptation approaches in wetland areas. She holds a master's degree in Global Environmental Policy from the School of International Service at American University, where among other topics, she studied water governance, water and climate change, and urban political ecology.