Charles Karangwa is a Regional Head of Land Systems, Covering Forests, Drylands and Sustainable Agriculture at The International Union for Conservation of Nature, Africa Region. He served as Country Representative for Rwanda since January 2016 and was appointed Country representative for Kenya starting 1st of June 2022.  Charles has led IUCN Work on Land restoration in Africa as part of the Bonn Challenge and AFR100, he engaged both Government and Non-States actors to bring Africa’s commitments to land restoration up to speed since 2016.

Charles recently joined the COP26 High-Level Champion team as the lead for land restoration in Africa and works to engage the private sector and other Non-State Actors for ambitious climate action to Race to Zero and Race to Resilience by 2050

With more than 18 years of Experience in the interface between sustainable development, conservation and sustainable finance in Africa and South East Asia, Charles focused his work on Climate Change, sustainable agriculture, biodiversity conservation, nature-based solutions, ecosystem restoration, and sustainable finance. Prior to joining IUCN, He worked for UNHCR, Oxfam, Care International and Wildlife Conservation Society.

Charles holds a Master of Business Administration (MBA) from the African Leadership University School of Business (ALUSB) with a focus on conservation finance, an MSc. in Poverty Reduction, Policy and Practice with a Focus on Environmental Policies from the University of London (SOAS), and a Bachelor of Development Studies with focus on rural economics.