Lelia Croitoru is an environmental economist (consultant) at the World Bank. She has worked extensively on environmental valuation related to forests, water, agricultural land and air quality. She edited 'The Cost of Environmental Degradation: Case Studies from Middle East and North Africa' (World Bank 2010), a pioneer book that assesses the economic costs of environmental degradation in selected countries of the Middle East and North Africa. She also co-edited 'Valuing Mediterranean forests: Towards Total Economic Value' (CABI Publishing 2005), a book that estimates the value of all forest goods and services in eighteen Mediterranean countries. Her recent work focuses on climate change adaptation, where she estimates the costs and benefits of adaptation measures on coastal areas in South Asia. She holds a PhD in Forest Economics from the University of Padova and Trento (Italy), and a Masters in Agricultural Economics from the University of Bucharest (Romania).