Professor Alfred Apau Oteng-Yeboah is a Professor in Plant Biology with special interest in taxonomy, systematics and vegetation studies and a strong advocate for the conservation and sustainable use of biodiversity at the national and international levels.

He was born at Akyem Tafo in the Eastern Region of Ghana and was educated at the AME Zion Primary and Middle Schools, Tafo, Abuakwa State College, Kibi, the University College of Cape Coast, the University of Ghana and the University of Edinburgh. He holds BSc and PhD degrees. He is a Fellow of the Linnaean Society of London, the Ghana Institute of Biology and the Ghana Academy of Arts and Sciences. He is a member of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.

He has held lectureship and other associated administrative positions at the following universities where he has been part of and/or responsible for the training of batches of students for bachelors, masters and doctorate degrees: University of Cape Coast, University of Sokoto, Nigeria, Moi University Kenya and the University of Ghana Legon. He was the Dean of the Faculty of Science, University of Sokoto, Head of the Department of Botany, University of Ghana. He has also served as a Deputy Director-General of the CSIR-Ghana responsible for national research coordination of issues of the environment and health across Ghana.

He has over 100 publications in books, refereed scientific journals, Conference proceedings and over 80 articles in other popular information outlets.

Professor Oteng-Yeboah has served on the boards and or councils of many institutions and organizations in Ghana and outside Ghana.

 At the national level he previously chaired the management boards of 4 CSIR institutes, namely: Forestry Research Institute of Ghana (FORIG), Plant Genetic Resources Research Institute (PGRRI), Soil Research (SRI) and Water Research Institutes (WRI). He also Chaired the Research Committee of Mampong Centre for Research into Plant Medicine (CRPM); the Management Committee of Cocoa Research Institute of Ghana (CRIG); the National Biodiversity Committee of the Ministry of Environment, Science, Technology and Innovation (MESTI), the Executive Committee within the EPA Board; the National Scholarships Review Committee of the Ghana Government Scholarships Secretariat; the Project Advisory Committee of Tropenbos Ghana; and the Board of Governors of West Africa Secondary School Accra and WBM Zion Secondary School at Tafo Akyem. He was a Member of the Council of the College of Health Sciences, University of Ghana, the Council of the Centre for Research into Plant Medicine; the Board of EPA; the Governing Council of CERSGIS (the remote sensing applications unit located at Legon) and the National Environmental Sanitation Policy Coordinating Council of MLGRD.

Presently at the national level, he chairs the National Bioethics and Natural Sciences Committee of the Ghana National Commission for UNESCO, the Board of A Rocha Ghana, the Board of Tropenbos Ghana, the Board of Conservation Alliance. He is also a Commissioner of the National Commission for UNESCO. He has been elected as the chairman for the Ghana National Biodiversity Steering Committee.

At the international level, he previously chaired the Standing Committee of UNEP-CMS; the Subsidiary Body on Science, Technical and Technological Advice (SBSTTA) of the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) for its 9th and 10th meetings; He also chaired the contact groups on Forest Biodiversity at the 6th Conference of Parties (COP 6) of CBD in the Hague, the Netherlands, Protected Areas at CBD COP 7 in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, Marine areas beyond national jurisdiction at CBD COP 8 in Curitiba, Brazil, the Expanded Work Programme on Protected Areas at CBD COP 9, in Bonn, Germany, Satoyama Initiative on sustainable use at CBD COP 10 in Nagoya, Japan,  and Capacity Building at CBD COP 13, in Cancun, Mexico.

He was also the Vice-Chair of the Standing Committee of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES); the Co-chair of the International Mechanism of Scientific Expertise on Biodiversity (IMoSEB), the Co-Chair of the UNEP sponsored Intergovernmental Platform for science-policy interface on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES) feasibility, and Co-chaired the 35th Council of Global Environment Facility (GEF).

He was also a Member of the Vital Signs Oversight Council of Conservation International, Los Angeles; the Council of GEF, Washington; the Council of African Centre for Technology Studies (ACTS) Nairobi which he currently chairs; the Task Force for International Union of Forestry Organizations (IUFRO), Vienna, Austria; the Board of the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment, Washington; the UNESCO International Ethics Committee, and International Biospheres Reserves Review Committee of UNESCO, Paris, France, the Board of the African Biodiversity Assessment of IPBES, Pretoria, South Africa. He was also the Vice-chair of the Bureau of IPBES, Bonn, Germany.

Currently he chairs the Council for the African Centre for Technology Studies (ACTS), Nairobi; the Steering Committee of IPSI of the United Nations University, Institute of Advanced Sustainability, Tokyo, Japan; he is a Consultant to the African Forest Forum, Nairobi, Kenya, UNESCO, UNEP; also a member of the UNEP-CMS Scientific Council, Bonn, Germany; a member of the International Advisory Board of IUCN Wise-Up project, Gland, Switzerland; and a member of the International Advisory Board of UN Environment-WCMC Connect Project, Cambridge, UK.

He was named the winner of the prestigious international awards of Midori Prize for Biodiversity in 2014 and the 2020 IUCN’s highest conservation award for the John C. Phillips Memorial Medal.  He is married to Rev Mrs Lily Oteng-Yeboah. He has five adult children, 2 Males and 3