Professor Ben Boer has been teaching and researching in the field of national and international environmental law since 1979. He specializes in the Asia Pacific region, in the fields of sustainable development, natural and cultural heritage conservation, biodiversity, and human rights and the environment. He was appointed as a Distinguished Professor at Wuhan University Law School in its Research Institute of Environmental Law, and is an Emeritus Professor at the University of Sydney Law School. He was the international director of the IUCN Academy of Environmental Law based at the University of Ottawa from 2006 to 2008. He was appointed as Deputy Chair of the World Commission on Environmental Law by the Council of IUCN in 2012. He has served as a consultant to various intergovernmental and non-governmental organizations and foreign aid agencies in a number of countries in the Asia-Pacific region over the past 25 years.