Richard Kyle Paisley 
​MSc, JD, LLM
Executive Director

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Based in Vancouver, Canada
Fluent in ​English

RICHARD KYLE PAISLEY is a senior advisor in national and international water governance. With a background in both science and law, Richard’s practice focuses on successfully negotiating and implementing governance arrangements for water, and related, resources including benefit sharing, data & information sharing & exchange, institutional architecture, dispute resolution, finance, compliance & enforcement and resilience to climate change.
 
Richard is currently an Honourary Research Associate, and Director of the Global Transboundary International Waters Governance Research Initiative, at the Institute of Asian Research, at the University of British Columbia (UBC), in Vancouver, Canada. Previously, he was the founding Executive Director of the Dr. Andrew R. Thompson Program in Natural Resources & Environmental Law & Policy at the Faculty of Law and a Senior Associate at the Westwater Research Centre at UBC. 

Richard’s academic background includes degrees from the following institutions: UBC (B.Sc.), University of Washington College of Fisheries/Institute for Marine Studies (M.Sc.); Pepperdine University School of Law (Juris Doctor), and the London School of Economics (LL.M.). 
 
For over three decades Richard has worked extensively throughout Africa, Asia, and the Americas where his research, teaching, graduate supervision, and consultancy interests have included: domestic and international water/energy law and policy; international environmental law; environmental conflict resolution and mediation; environmental impact assessment; the intersection between climate change & peace processes; and international business transactions.
 
He has published extensively in the scholarly academic literature and continues to demonstrate his proven success in integrating science, law, and mediation through positions as a special counsel/advisor/trainer including to various: governments (e.g. Canada, British Columbia, Washington State, Afghanistan, Nepal); international organizations (e.g. UN Department of Political & Peacekeeping Affairs, World Bank, Asian Development Bank (ADB), United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), United Nations Environmental Program (UNEP), European External Action Service (EEAS), UN Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO), UN Regional Centre for Preventive Diplomacy for Central Asia (UNRCCA), Mekong River Commission Secretariat (MRCS), Nepal Water & Energy Commission Secretariat (WECS), Nile Basin Initiative Secretariat, Lake Tanganyika Authority (LTA)); NGO’s (e.g. World Wildlife Fund (WWF), Canadian Parks & Wilderness Society (CPAWS), Aga Khan Foundation (AKF), RBC Blue Water Foundation); quasi-government entities (e.g. Columbia Basin Trust (CBT), BC Hydro, Columbia Power Corporation (CPC)); Indigenous groups and the private sector.

Richard is an avid downhill/XC/backcountry skier, cyclist, backpacker and aspiring surfer.