Terhi Lehtonen joined the Ministry of the Environment in July 2019 from the European Commission Directorate General for Climate Action. Before DG CLIMA, she advised the Greens/EFA group in the European Parliament on environmental and climate policy for 14 years. From 2001−2003 she worked as the head of office for MEP Heidi Hautala in Brussels and Strasbourg. Lehtonen set up the European Office of the city of Turku, Finland, in Brussels in 1998 and represented the region in EU institutions until 2001.
Before joining the Ministry of Environment, she worked at Rwanda Institute for Conservation Agriculture as the administrative coordinator for academic affairs, extension and applied research. Prior to that, she served as an environmental audit and monitoring officer at Rwanda Environment Management Authority (REMA) for more than seven years and also as the alternate focal point for the Montreal protocol on substances that deplete the ozone layer, and the Nagoya Protocol focal point, where she managed different projects aiming at regulating access to the genetic resources. In her capacity as an environmental audit and monitoring officer, she conducted environmental audit activities for different projects under operation and monitored their compliance with environmental regulations.
She is a member of the African Women in science and Engineering. A Rwandan national, Beatrice holds a Master’s in biodiversity conservation from the University of Rwanda.
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