Zeremariam Fre

Zeremariam Fre (born 1951 in Keren, western Eritrea) is an agriculturalist, specialising in the drylands, and is of dual Eritrean-British nationality. He is the founder and former director of the Pastoral and Environmental Network in the Horn of Africa (PENHA), where he now serves on the Board of Trustees as treasurer.
Background.
Fre is the son of Fre Worie and Letezion Beyed. He was born to a farming family in the suburbs of Keren city in western Eritrea and is married to Biri Tesfaldet with whom he has two children. His primary and secondary school education was carried out in catholic mission/seminary schools in Keren and Asmara in Eritrea.
Education and career.
Fre holds a Diploma in Agriculture from the Royal Agricultural University (MRAC), UK, and an MSc and PhD in Agricultural Extension and Rural Development from the University of Reading, Faculty of Agriculture, UK. His field-based MSc and PhD work (1983 to 1989) was focused on ‘Pastoral development in Eritrea and Eastern Sudan: Implications for Livestock Extension Programmes’. Having finished his PhD, he founded the international non-governmental organisation (NGO) - the Pastoral and Environmental Network in the Horn of Africa (PENHA) in 1989 - which he led for 27 years from 1990 to 2017, and of which Joanna Lumley is patron. He is now on the Board of Trustees.
Fre's long career has focused on policy research and advocacy on pastoralism, land use and natural resource management, indigenous knowledge systems, the promotion of pastoral women’s rights, and the promotion of regional peace in the Horn of Africa through cooperation between states. He was a member of the Science and Technology Committee of the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) (1992-1995), research fellow at the International Institute for Environment and Development (IIED) Drylands Programme (1991-1996) under the leadership of Camilla Toulmin, and Africa Grants Committee member for Comic Relief UK (1992-1994). 
He was appointed teaching fellow and course tutor at the Bartlett Development Planning Unit, University College London (UCL) in September 2002, where he currently teaches the MSc modules on Land, food and agriculture and Urban and peri-urban agriculture: knowledge systems in the global South. He has supervised more than 90 masters' dissertations and co-supervised many PhDs. Fre speaks several languages including English, Italian, Latin, spoken Arabic, and five Horn of African languages (namely Tigrigna, Bilen, Tigre, Amharic and Geez).
In 2018 he was awarded the Desmond Tutu Reconciliation Fellowship Award (FGR) by Global Reconciliation for his work on environmental care. He received the award in Melbourne, Australia in October 2018.
Fre's recent research is on social protection among the agro-pastoralist and pastoralist communities in the Afar Region of Ethiopia. Fre has worked in Djibouti, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Kenya, Somaliland, South Sudan, Sudan, Tanzania, Uganda, as well as Japan, Peru and the United Kingdom, with working visits to Canada, Denmark, France, Iceland, Italy, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, South Africa, Sweden, Switzerland, Tunisia, the US and Zambia.