Vijai Sharma is Chairman (Emeritus) of the Network for Certification & Conservation of Forests, a non-profit organization in India, working on the environmental, economic and social aspects of sustainable forestry management with the aim of developing certification standards. He was in the Indian Administrative Service and has been Secretary to the Government of India, Ministry of Environment, Forests & Climate Change; Special Secretary in the Cabinet Secretariat of India; Member of the National Green Tribunal (Principal Bench); and Chief Information Commissioner of India. His experience includes environment and forest legislation and policy; industrial and vehicular pollution control; hazardous substances management; biomedical wastes; trade-and-environment; biodiversity; desertification and land-degradation; afforestation and forest conservation; wildlife management and tiger-protection. Mr Sharma was India’s National Focal Point on Climate Change and Ozone. He also worked as Special Adviser to the Executive Director of UNEP. He was key in the establishment of the National Environment Appellate Authority; the National Ganges River Basin Authority; and the National Green Tribunal. Mr Sharma was Secretary to the State Government of Uttar Pradesh in the departments of Housing, Environment and Energy, and Chairperson of the State Pollution Control Board. Mr Sharma has law degrees from Canning College Lucknow, University College London and Harvard Law School. He has authored books on India’s historical forts.