Nfamara K Dampha

Dr. Nfamara K Dampha is the NatCap Program Director and Lead Scientist for Natural Capital and Ecosystem Services at University of Minnesota - Institute on the Environment (IonE). As Program Director at IonE, Dr. Dampha seeks to strengthen IonE/NatCap’s partnership with local and international stakeholders to advance natural capital accounting and ecosystem service assessment and valuation to inform decision-making for building a sustainable future – in which people and the planet prosper together. His philosophy is “mainstream natural capital accounts and ecosystem service values into decision-making for optimizing sustainability, or else, it doesn’t matter!”

Before joining NatCap, Dr. Dampha has over 13 years of professional, academic, and leadership experience working with international organizations, government institutions, universities, and nonprofits. He serves as a Climate Change Consultant for the World Bank Group and a Post-doctoral Associate for the University of Minnesota (UMN) USA. He supports the Bank’s approach to integrating climate change, nature, and sustainable development in its programmatic and analytical operations. His Ph.D. focused on climate change policy and natural resource economics (ecosystem service assessment and valuation), and his master’s was in international development practice both from the UMN. His research interests focus on the intersection of sustainability, natural capital accounting, ecosystem service modeling, climate risk analysis, climate-induced migration/displacement, and nature-based approaches for disaster risk reduction. He enjoys GIS-based remote sensing applications for ecosystem services assessment, climate risk assessment, and multi-hazard mapping for disaster mitigation.