Gurdial Singh Nijar is an advocate and solicitor and presently a legal consultant at the law firm Sreenevasan, UNDP-GEF Project of the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment, and UNDP-GEF Project of the Sarawak Biodiversity Centre. He holds an LLB (Hons) degree from King’s College London and a Masters Law degree from the University of Malaya. He was a Law Professor at University of Malaya’s Law Faculty  for 16 years. Presently the Vice President of HAKAM, the Malaysian Human Rights Society, he is also the Founder-Director of the National Centre of Excellence for Biodiversity Law, Senior Research Fellow at the South Centre, Geneva; Legal Expert for the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, Rome; and former member of the Compliance Committee, UN Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety. Gurdial led Malaysia and developing countries in international negotiations that led to the adoption of three international treaties, namely The Nagoya Protocol on Access to Genetic Resources and Benefit Sharing (ABS) arising from their Utilisation (2010); The Nagoya-Kuala Lumpur Supplementary Protocol on Damage Resulting from Living Modified Organisms (2010); and The Paris Agreement on Climate Change (2015). Gurdial has authored several books including Patenting Life Forms: Law & Practice; Civil Trial Advocacy; and Drafting for Lawyers. Gaia worked closely with Gurdial in the 1990’s to stop patents on life and defend community rights, and later on Earth Jurisprudence.