Elena is an international lawyer from Switzerland who joined the Eurosite network in 2022. She has a PhD in international public law, worked previously in the United Nations Environment Programme in Geneva, Switzerland, in the secretariats of the Rotterdam and Stockholm conventions on dangerous chemicals, where she specialised in international environmental law.

She focuses on branches such as nature restoration law, comparative law and responsibility in nature restoration, private nature protection, and nature’s rights. In accordance with an agreement on an In Rem right of environmental conservation (Derecho real de conservacion medioambiental) she acts as a land steward of a protected area in Chilean Patagonia (www.pichimahuida.info), thus applying the nature’s right concept to native reforestation and nature restoration of a degraded area, in addition to its conservation.

Elena joined the Eurosite network to learn the best European practices in land and nature conservation and restoration, and in particular the most effective means of the long-term protection of the results of those, in order to use this knowledge to develop custom-made legal protection projects for privately protected areas, as well as to share the experience of private restoration and conservation under different legal regimes and settings. Furthermore, Elena is now an expert in degraded ecosystem restoration.

Contact

E-mail: elena.sobakina2@gmail.com