David R. Boyd is an environmental lawyer who served as the UN Special Rapporteur on the human right to a clean, healthy and sustainable environment from 2018 to 2024, presenting dozens of reports to the UN, filing amicus curiae briefs in 15 landmark legal proceedings, and making more than 500 speeches in a successful effort to advance the recognition and implementation of the right to a healthy environment. His work on this fundamental human right has been cited by courts around the world including the International Court of Justice, the Inter-American Court of Human Rights, and the European Court of Human Rights.

Boyd has a PhD in Resource Management and Environmental Studies from UBC, a law degree from the University of Toronto, and a business degree from the University of Alberta. In 2025, Boyd was awarded an honorary doctor of laws degree from Nelson Mandela University and the Elisabeth Haub Award for Environmental Law and Diplomacy for his work on the right to a healthy environment. Among his 11 books are Our Right to a Healthy Planet (2027), Thirst for Justice (2020), The Rights of Nature (2017), The Optimistic Environmentalist (2015), The Right to a Healthy Environment (2012), and The Environmental Rights Revolution (2011). He is also a father, nature lover, ultramarathoner, and four-time Ironman.