Mariam Akhtar-Schuster

Mariam Akhtar-Schuster is a senior scientist at the Project Management Agency of the German Aerospace Center in Berlin, Germany. A trained geographer, she received her doctorate from the Faculty of Mathematics and Sciences at the University of Göttingen. Since 1988 she has conducted field research on desertification, land degradation and drought particularly in northeastern and southern Africa. Her expertise covers geomorphology, morphodynamics, long-term changes in biodiversity and land-use systems with a particular focus on nomadic animal husbandry and science-policy communication.

She co-founded and co-chaired the independent scientific network DesertNet International and served on the scientific steering committees for the first and third UNCCD scientific conferences (2009 and 2015). In 2012–2013 she chaired the UNCCD Ad Hoc Working Group on options for providing scientific advice to the Convention. From 2014 to 2019 she co-chaired the UNCCD Science-Policy Interface (SPI). In 2017 she was nominated by the IPCC as review editor for its Special Report on Climate Change and Land.

Since 2014 she has provided scientific and strategic support to the German government, the EU and the WEOG in reviewing initiatives of IPBES/CBD, IPCC/UNFCCC and UNCCD/SPI. In early 2025 she joined the IPBES review committee for the external mid-term review of its 2030 work program. She has published extensively on the need to strengthen synergies in scientific collaboration between IPBES, IPCC and the UNCCD SPI.