Bojie Fu is Distinguished Professor at the Research Centre for Eco-Environmental Sciences of Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS). He obtained his Ph.D. from a split Ph.D. program in Peking University (Beijing, China) and University of Stirling (Stirling, UK) in 1989. He has been elected as Academician of CAS, International Honorary Member of American Academy of Arts and Sciences Fellow of the Academy of Sciences for Developing World (TWAS), and Corresponding Fellow of the Royal Society Edinburgh, UK. His research areas are land use and land cover change, landscape pattern and ecological processes, ecosystem services and management.

Among his many titles, he serves as Vice President of International Geographical Union (IGU) and Member of the multidisciplinary expert group on the Intergovernmental Science Policy Platform for Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES). He has published more than 500 scientific papers and 12 books. Mark Stafford Smith is based in Canberra, Australia, and contributes to research on adaptation and sustainable development. He has recently retired from CSIRO, Australia's national research organization, where he had been oversighting a highly interdisciplinary program of research on many aspects of adapting to climate change, as well as regularly interacting with national and international policy issues around sustainable development. He continues as CSIRO Honorary Fellow, and in several international roles, including as Senior Advisor to Chair of the Global Environment Facility's Scientific and Technical Advisory Panel in Washington. In Australia, he contributes to Future Earth Australia on sustainability issues, the Outback Alliance on policy for remote areas, the Global Drylands Ecosystem Program network, and various other chairing, editorial, and writing roles. He has over 30 years' experience in drylands systems ecology, management, and policy.