Tsvetilena Bandakova is a Program Manager for the Nature Crime Alliance. In this role, Tsvetilena will provide strategic and operational support to the Alliance, coordinating the Secretariat and keeping us on-track to deliver on our projects.

Prior to joining WRI, Tsveti worked as a Project Manager for Coventry University. She coordinated and managed a portfolio of EU-funded projects, in the fields of Agroecology, Food Sustainability, Community Resilience and Sustainable Cities. She led on establishing an Urban Food Agroecological Living Lab in Coventry, and on a West Midlands Combined Universities’ initiative for a Food and Fuel Poverty Hub in the West Midlands.

Prior to that, she spent four years in India as a researcher working on several community-based projects for conserving agricultural biodiversity, documenting oral histories, and setting up food gardens.

She holds a M.Sc. in South Asia and International Development from the University of Edinburgh, and a B.A. in Indology from Sofia University, Bulgaria.

Her mother tongue is Bulgarian and she speaks fluent English and Hindi, as well as some Russian, German, Italian and Croatian. In her free time, Tsveti enjoys all things food- cooking, growing and traveling, as well as kayaking and sailing.