Speakers

Isis Alvarez is a Colombian ecologist and gender expert working for the Global Forest Coalition and the International Consortium on Indigenous Peoples and local communities’ conserved territories and areas (the ICCA Consortium). The ICCA Consortium is an international association dedicated to promoting the appropriate recognition of and support to ICCAs in the regional, national and global arena.

Keith Alverson is the Head of the Climate Change Adaptation and Terrestrial Ecosystems Branch of the Division on Environmental Policy Implementation at the UNEP in Nairobi, Kenya. From 2004-2011, Keith served as Head of Ocean Observations and Services at the Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission of UNESCO and director of the Global Ocean Observing System, based in Paris, France. Prior to 2004, he was director of the International Geosphere Biosphere Programme’s core project Past Global Changes (PAGES) in Bern, Switzerland. Keith has degrees in Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering and East Asian Studies from Princeton University (1988) and a doctorate in Physical Oceanography from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (1995). Keith has served on a number of high level scientific panels including as president of the International Commission for Climate of the International Association for Meteorology and Atmospheric Sciences and Chair of the United Nations Interagency Coordination and Planning Committee for Earth Observations.

Arild Angelsen is a professor of economics at the Norwegian University of Life Sciences (UMB). He has over the past two decades done extensive research and published on causes of tropical deforestation, and its interaction with poverty, tenure and government policies. More recent work is on how avoided deforestation and forest degradation (REDD+) can be included in a global climate regime, and the national strategies and policies needed to reduce GHG emissions. He has authored and edited several key REDD+ publications. Angelsen is global coordinator of the Poverty Environment Network (PEN), a CIFOR-led research programme collecting detailed information from 8 000 households in 24 developing countries on forest uses and management.

Marcial Arias is senior policy advisor of the International Alliance of Indigenous and Tribal Peoples of the Tropical Forest and Board member of the Guna organization Asociacion Indigena Ambiental in Panama. He also is the Latin American Indigenous focal point of the Global Forest Coalition.

Walter E. Baethgen is the Head of the Program Regional and Sectorial research and the leader for Latin America and the Caribbean at the International Research Institute for Climate and Society (IRI). Baethgen has been establishing regional research and capacity building programs that aim to improve climate risk assessment and risk management in agriculture, health, water resources, and natural ecosystems. Between 2010 and 2012 Baethgen acted as Distinguished Lead Scholar of the NEXUS program (Fulbright Foundation) that aims to inform the elaboration of policy with scientific research. Before joining the IRI Baethgen was a Senior Scientist in the Research and Development Division of the International Soil Fertility and Agricultural Development Center (IFDC) where he worked mainly in Information and Decision Support Systems for the Agricultural Sector (1987-2003). Since 1990 (first with IFDC and now with the IRI) he has been establishing and coordinating regional research programs in Latin America in collaboration with national and international organizations. At CRED Baethgen is linking his ongoing work in the Southern Cone of South America, aimed at incorporating climate information, products and tools to assist decisions and planning in agriculture and water resource management (public and private sectors).

Peter Bakker is the President of the World Business Council for Sustainable Development. Bakker joined the WBCSD in January 2012 after having been a member in his role as CEO of TNT NV, the Netherlands-based holding company of TNT Express and Royal TNT Post. He is the recipient of the Clinton Global Citizen Award in 2009 and the SAM Sustainability Leadership Award in 2010, and is a UN WFP Ambassador Against Hunger.

Peter Besseau is Director of the International Affairs Division of Natural Resources Canada’s Canadian Forest Service and Executive Director of the International Model Forest Network (IMFN) Secretariat in Ottawa. He has been involved in international affairs and development since 1991, initially focussing on economies in transition. He has extensive fieldwork and policy experience in landscape-level natural resource management through the IMFN in Asia, South America, Russia, Africa and Europe. He has an undergraduate degree in Russian language and literature and a Master’s degree in political economy. Peter has participated as a speaker for many international events and organizations, including the FAO World Forestry Congress, IUCN World Conservation Congress, UN Forum on Forests and others.

Luna Bharati has over 12 years of experience in projects related to natural resources and land and water management. Luna has a multidisciplinary background with a bachelors majoring in Biology (Ecology) and a minor in Economics from Luther College, USA and a Masters in Water Resources from Iowa State University. During her research assistantship at Iowa State University, she worked in a pioneering project developing effective riparian buffer systems in mid-western, USA. She conducted her doctoral research at the Dept. of hydrological modeling at the Helmholtz Center for Environmental Research- UFZ in Germany focusing on catchment modeling of surface hydrology, erosion and pollutant transport. Currently she is senior researcher and head of the IWMI-Nepal office. She manages multiple projects assessing the impact of climate change as well as adaptation strategies from large river basins to small mountain watersheds.

Mr. Boccucci has acted as Head of the UN-REDD Programme Secretariat since January 2013. He brings to the UN-REDD Programme 20 years of experience on operational and policy work on sustainable management of terrestrial ecosystems, forest management, governance of natural resources, biodiversity, land uses and climate change mitigation and adaptation. Mr. Boccucci is currently the Chief of the Terrestrial Ecosystems Unit in UNEP, where he has been responsible for the development and operationalization of strategies for forests, drylands, cultivated land, mountains and REDD+. Prior to joining UNEP in Nairobi in 2008, Mario was with the World Bank as Senior Climate Change and Forests Specialist. He also worked for the World Bank in Indonesia. Mr. Boccucci is known to most in the UN-REDD community as he has been involved since the Programme’s first Policy Board in Panama in 2009.

Mr. Boccucci’s experience spans across the wide spectrum of REDD+ issues, in the field, in country offices and at headquarters. His first job in 1991 was with the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) in Belize on monitoring and assessment of land cover. He then went on to more remote sensing work in Morocco before joining the European Commission, based in Fiji, where he developed and supervised large programs for agriculture development, participatory land use management and stakeholders engagement for the South-Pacific region.

Deborah Bossio is the Director of Soil Research at the International Center for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT).  She has lived and worked in the Western United States, South America, South Asia, and East Africa, conducting research on sustainable agricultural development for more than 20 years. She is a Soil Scientist with broad-based experience in soil fertility, sustainable agriculture, land degradation, soil ecology and biology, soil carbon, and water management. She has a keen interest in ecosystem services and sustaining society’s ecological foundations. Her team at CIAT focuses on restoring degraded lands, sustainable intensification of farming systems, and climate smart agriculture.

Maria Brockhaus is an economist and policy analyst in forestry and agricultural sciences. She has worked at the interface of research and development, and economics and policy in anglo- and francophone countries in the Middle East and West and Central Africa. Brockhaus holds a sound practical and theoretical knowledge of forestry and agricultural policy, rural sociology and economics. Since 2009 she has been leading the research on national REDD+ strategies and policies in CIFOR’s global comparative study (GCS-REDD+).

Sally Bunning is Senior Land/Soils Officer at the Land and Water Division, Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO). She is a geographer from Nottingham University, UK, with a MSc in Land resources management, soil and water engineering from Silsoe College, UK, and a DAA on soil and water management in agriculture from ENSAM, Montpellier. She has 30 years of agricultural and environmental development experience, with a focus on watershed and sustainable agro-ecosystem management, mainly in Africa, but with some experience in other regions. She has worked with FAO since 1989 including a secondment to the Secretariat of the Convention on Biological Diversity. She was based for ten years in Africa.

Dr. Bruce Campbell is Director of the CGIAR Research Programme on Climate Change, Agriculture and Food Security (CCAFS) (www.ccafs.cgiar.org), and a staff member of the International Centre for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT). He holds degrees in Ecology from Cape Town (B.Sc. Hons.), Minnesota (M.Sc.) and Utrecht (Ph.D.), but has increasingly moved into inter-disciplinary work, championing new approaches to conducting applied research on natural resource management.

Born and raised in India, Jeff is a US citizen with many years of experience in forestry, rural development and philanthropy. Most recently Jeff worked at the Christensen Fund as Director of Grantmaking, after a long career at the Ford Foundation. This included serving as Program Officer for environment and development programs in India and Nepal (1991-1996) and Indonesia (1997-2000), and then as Program Officer, Deputy Director and then Senior Program Officer in the New York Office (2000-2008). In New York Jeff was both responsible for North American grantmaking around community forestry and rural livelihoods and for a global program of advocacy and learning in environment and development.

Professor Cashore’s research interests include the emergence of non-state, market-driven environmental governance; the impact of globalization, internationalization, and transnational networks on domestic policy choices; comparative environmental and forest policy development; and firm-level “beyond compliance” sustainability initiatives.

Aracely Castro is Scientist at the International Center for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT).  She has worked in Latin America, conducting research on sustainable agricultural development for more than 15 years. She is an Agroecologist with experience in soil fertility (particularly nitrogen, phosphorus and carbon cycling), plant breeding, artisan seed production, and sustainable intensification of agriculture on tropical hillsides and savannas.  She is focusing her work on the restoration and conservation of degraded agro-ecosystems through the development and dissemination of resilient social-ecological farming systems, to secure food production and enhance other key ecosystem services at plot and landscape scales.

Dr. Catacutan is Senior Social Scientist and Country Representative of the World Agroforestry Centre (ICRAF) in Vietnam.  Delia is also the Centre’s Gender Program Coordinator.  With over 10 years research experience in policy and institutional issues around integrated natural resources management in Asia and Africa, Dr. Catacutan focused on smallholder incentives and local institutions that enhance landscape multi-functionality. Dr. Catacutan obtained a PhD in Natural & Rural Systems Management from theUniversity of Queensland, Australia. She was also a Sustainability Science Post-Doctoral fellow at Harvard University’s Center for International Development.

Mr. Kare Chawicha is State Minister for Environment and Forest for Ethiopia’s Ministry of Environmental Protection and Forestry. Previously, Mr. Chawicha was Head of the Regional Health Bureau of the SNNP Region of Ethiopia. He has an MSC in Development Management and BSC in Public Health

Sosten S. Chiotha of Malawi received a Bachelor of Education from the University of Malawi, a Master of Science in Medical Parasitology from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine in the UK and a PhD in Environmental Science from the University of Maryland at College Park in the USA. After two years as a Schoolteacher, S.S. Chiotha joined Biology Department of the University of Malawi where he lectured for many years in medical parasitology. In 1991, he became the University of Malawi Research Coordinator until December 1996 when he became the Regional Program Director for Leadership for Environment and Development (LEAD)-Southern Africa. Sosten actively participated in the process of drafting Malawi’s National Environmental Action Plan and the national disaster preparedness plan. On the international scene, he has contributed to publications on Research for the Association of African Universities and the American Association for the Advancement of Science.

Prof. Józef Chojnicki is head of department of Soil Environment Sciences, Faculty of Agriculture and Biology in Warsaw University of Life Sciences (SGGW) in Warsaw. His scientific interests include: soil genesis, classification and evolution; searching qualitative – quantitative indices of soil – forming processes, the qualitative and quantitative investigations of the clay minerals in soils.and their transformations  in soil – forming processes, anthropogenic transformations of soils (physical, chemical, mineralogical changes). He is also the secretary of the Polish Soil Science Society and International Union of Soil Sciences.

Dr Agata Cieszewska is a geographer, environmental planner, and associate professor at the Department of Landscape Architecture, University of Life Sciences in Warsaw – SGGW. She was a Kosciuszko Foundation scholar at the Arizona State University, and a visiting professor at the University of Texas. Currently she is a Fulbright scholar. Agata is Secretary of the Polish Association for Landscape Ecology. She has worked on various environmental and planning documents related to Warsaw and other cities in Poland and has also prepared Conservation Plans for Regional Parks. Currently she is working on the structure and function of the greenbelts within metropolitan areas.

Harry Clemens is Programme Officer Carbon Finance for the Green Enterpreneurship Programme of Hivos, based in the Netherlands. He is development economist, graduated at the Free University of Amsterdam with working experience on several topics related to rural development and finance, including agricultural markets, food security, microfinance, rural finance and carbon finance. He is in charge of development and monitoring of CDM and Voluntary Gold Standard projects for domestic biogas in South East Asia, East Africa and Central America. Currently the scope is expanding to Climate Smart Agriculture to provide incentives for sustainable food systems and ecosystem services.

John Colmey is Director of Information & Communications for the Center of International Forestry Research (CIFOR), one of the world’s leading research institutions on tropical forests and climate change. CIFOR has scientists working in 37 countries from Indonesia to the Amazon. John has spent more than 25 years in Africa, South, East and Southeast Asia: including seven years as a senior research editor and writer, and more than 12 years as a foreign correspondent in radio, broadcast and print, and five years with TIME Magazine where he served as Hong Kong Bureau Chief. As a journalist, John won numerous international and national awards. He has a B.S. in forestry and an M.Ag. in technical communication, both from the University of Minnesota, an M.A. in economic geography from the London School of Economics, and an M.S. in journalism from Columbia University in New York.

Ruth DeFries (born 1957) is an environmental geographer who specializes in the use of remote sensing to study Earth’s habitability under the influence of human activities, such as deforestation, that influence regulating biophysical and biogeochemical processes. She was one of 24 recipients of the 2007 MacArthur Fellowship, and was elected to the United States National Academy of Sciences in 2006.

Houria is a CIFOR Scientist based in Burkina Faso with an academic background in both social and biophysical sciences. Her research focuses on the nexus between natural resource management, climate change adaptation and gender in Northern and Western Africa.

Lalisa Duguma is a Postdoctoral Fellow with the ASB Partnership for the Tropical Forest Margins and World Agroforestry Centre based in Nairobi Kenya. He is a forester and agroforester by training and has over 10 years of experience working on people-forest interactions, deforestation and forest degradation, natural resources management and the economics of rural land uses. Currently he works mainly on 1) climate change measures from landscapes perspectives particularly on trade-offs and synergies between mitigation and adaptation measures in the land use sector and; 2) tropical landscapes multifunctionality specifically on the approach and the metrics.

Mr. Eduardo Durand is in charge of climate change issues in the Vice Ministry of Strategic Development for Natural Resources in the Ministry of Environment of Peru.  He has a degree in architecture from Peru’s National University of Engineering and a postgraduate degree in regional development planning from the Institute of Social Studies in The Hague, Netherlands. Mr. Durand has extensive public sector experience in territorial planning, protected areas conservation and rural development in the tropics, in particular in the Amazon. He has consulted for national and international organizations, including, among others, UNDP, the World Bank, FAO, CEPAL and ILPES, as well as for NGOs in Peru and elsewhere.

Olgierd Dziekoński, since October 2010, has been the secretary of state at the Chancellery of the President of the Republic of Poland. He graduated from the Faculty of Architecture of the Wroclaw University of Technology. He was deputy mayor of the City of Warsaw in 1990-1994 and 1999-2000. He was actively involved in the creation of local self-government in Warsaw after the democratic breakthrough in 1990. He then took the role of undersecretary of state in the Ministry of Infrastructure (2000-2001 and 2007-2010). He is the founder and was the president of the governmental foundation called Municipal Development Agency (1994-1999), which supported self-governments in Poland. He was hired as a UE expert for local and regional development and self-government initiatives in the UE countries and Syria (2001-2002 and 2006-2007). He has also been manager for development at RTI Poland in 2002-2006. He is a member of numerous professional organizations.

Niels Elers Koch worked almost ten years in the Ministry for Environment of Denmark as head of section, head of department and forest supervisor. Moreover, he has worked as a part-time lecturer at KVL for 12 years, as guest professor at two American universities and carried out research into and written a doctoral dissertation on the importance of forests for outdoor life.

Jane Feehan (PhD) is a Natural Resources Specialist with the European Investment Bank (EIB), the EU’s long-term lending bank based in Luxembourg. A biologist and forest engineer by training, she works on the Bank’s operations in the forestry, agriculture and rural development sectors, both within the EU and around the world. Jane has been with EIB since 2008, prior to which she worked with the European Environment Agency and the Irish Environmental Protection Agency. The EIB’s investments range from direct loan support to major public and private sector projects, to indirect support to thousands of smaller projects via local partners, and more recently via microfinance and equity participation in funds.

Mr. Fridh has 30 years of experience working with forest inventory and economic forest management planning. He has been working with strategic forest planning including forecasting timber yield and possible cut at national and regional level as well as forest management level. He has been involved with FAO with the international NFMA, National Forest Monitoring and Assessment with connection to REDD. He has been working professionally abroad in Iran, Russia, Ethiopia, Macedonia and Turkey. He has been a member of the steering group of the Heureka research programme, developing analysis and planning tools for sustainable multi-purpose forestry.

Fernanda has been working with climate change and forests since 2004, mainly in Brazil. She is a Phd candidate at the Federal Rural University of Rio de Janeiro (UFRRJ) in institutions, markets and regulation and has a master degree in Environment and Development from the London School of Economics (LSE). She is currently a researcher and professor at the Center for Law and the Environment at the Getulio Vargas Foundation (FGV/RJ) and a consultant to the Center for International Forestry Research (CIFOR). Fernanda has worked as a visiting researcher at the Oxford Centre for Tropical Forests (OCTF), at the University of Oxford, and as a consultant for various institutions such as The Nature Conservancy (TNC), the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) and the Ministry of Environment in Brazil (MMA). She is also the latin-america civil society representative of the Forest Investment Program (FIP). Her main research topics are: climate change, political and economic instruments and incentives for forest conservation, reducing emissions from deforestation and degradation (REDD+), benefit-sharing, safeguards and participatory forest management.

After receiving his PhD in 1993 from the University of St Andrews, Jaboury Ghazoul spent a formative year in Vietnam leading forest biodiversity assessments with the Vietnamese Ministry of Forestry. In 1995 he returned to the Natural History Museum as a postdoctoral scientist to run a Centre for International Forestry Research project addressing logging impacts on tree reproduction in Thailand. He was appointed Lecturer in Tropical Forest Ecology at Imperial College London in 1998, and Senior Lecturer in 2003. In October 2005 he moved to ETH Zurich, Switzerland, as Professor of Ecosystem Management where his research has focused on ecological processes relevant to plant reproduction, tree genetics, ecosystem services, forest conservation and crop production, particularly in the context of land use change in tropical forested landscape mosaics. Jaboury also served as Editor-in-Chief of the journal Biotropica from 2006 to 2013.

Bernard Giraud is the co-founder of the Livelihoods Fund, a mutual fund with Danone and other investors. He is also President of Livelihoods Venture. In his former position of Vice-President of Sustainability and Shared Value Creation of Danone, he developed an ambitious carbon reduction and offset policy.

Elwyn Grainger Jones joined the International Fund for Agricultural Development in September of 2009 to set up and lead IFAD’s Environment and Climate Division.  He started his career as an Overseas Development Institute fellow in Guyana in 1993, having studied economics at the London School of Economics and the University of Warwick.  He then joined DFID, holding various positions, including working on South East Asia and leading the trade policy team.

Wiesław Gryn graduated from the Agricultural Technical College in 1978. Together with his parents, he run a family farm of 28 hectares. In 1988 he took over the farm as the sixth generation of farmers since 1785. The farm has gradually expanded and its current size is nearly 600 hectares. In 1996 he started co-organizing Zamojskie Towarzystwo Rolnicze – the Zamość Agricultural Society, which he has led as president since 2000. The organization represents 80 farmers, with about 15,000 ha of agricultural production collectively. Since 2002 Wieslaw’s farm has co-operated with the Institute of Soil Science and Plant Cultivation in Puławy. The institute does research on various tillage systems including the Strip-Tillage, different wheat, corn and rapeseed varieties as well as the use of fertiliser and trace element deep placement.

Since 1990, Krystyna has been involved in the implementation of the European Union policies and funding in Poland. She has headed government institutions responsible for management of EU programmes supporting SME promotion and regional development, including the Polish Agency for Enterprise Development. She was the Undersecretary of State in the Office of the Committee of European Integration, which is responsible for foreign assistance coordination, and the Undersecretary of State in the Ministry of Economy and Labour, which is responsible for coordination of EU cooperation and EU Structural Funds. She has conducted evaluations of EU funded programmes and is presently Undersecretary of State in the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, which is responsible for EU and international cooperation.

Sepo is responsible for managing the Food, Agriculture and Natural Resources Policy Analysis Network’s (FANRPAN’s) climate change initiatives on adaptation and mitigation. It involves co-ordination, influencing and facilitating policy research, analysis and dialogue at national, regional and global levels in order to develop the FANR sector through networking, capacity building, building linkages between research and policy and generation of information for the benefit of all stakeholders on the continent. Sepo has authored and co-authored numerous research papers in major international peer-reviewed journals on regional agriculture and climate change. Up until 2010, Sepo was based at the Climate Systems Analysis Group (CSAG) based at the University of Cape Town (UCT) where he obtained an MSc and a PhD in Environmental Science. While at UCT, Sepo’s research interest was on how to better use climate information for impact assessment.

Mr Hailu is the Director of the Technical Centre for Agricultural and Rural Cooperation, (CTA), a joint EU-ACP organization, based in the Netherlands. Mr. Hailu has over 25 years of experience in agricultural research and development in Africa and Asia. He has provided demonstrated leadership in designing and implementing strategies for institutional change and transformation.

Martin Herold (martin.herold@wur.nl) is Professor for Geo-information Science and Remote Sensing at Wageningen University (the Netherlands) and co-chair of the GOFC-GOLD land cover team. His research focuses on large area land and forest monitoring and assessments; including approaches to REDD+ monitoring and MRV.

Dr. Herren is one of the leading scientists worldwide in biological pest control. He has lived and researched in Africa for over 25 years. Dr. Herren has been awarded many accolades for his research for the welfare of humanity. He was awarded the World Food Prize in 1995 for his work in devising effective organic control methods for the devastating cassava pest that is credited with saving millions of people in Africa from starving to death. With the award money he created the Biovision Foundation to combat hunger and poverty through the application of ecological methods. In 2005 Dr. Herren officially took over presidency of the Millennium Institute in Washington DC which supports the governments of developing countries by providing resources for sustainable development. Dr. Herren is also the co-chair of the International Assessment of Agricultural Knowledge, Science and Technology for Development IAASTD, known best for its ground-breaking report published in 2008.

Thomas Hofer is a Swiss Geographer who implemented his masters and PhD studies in the Himalayan Region. In 1997 and 1998 he worked as Watershed Management Advisor at the International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development in Kathmandu. Since 1998 he has been based at the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations in Rome responsible for the program on watershed management, sustainable mountain development and forest hydrology. His portfolio includes the technical support to field projects, the coordination of conceptual activities and the support to international processes. Since August 2012 he has also acted as the Coordinator of the Mountain Partnership Secretariat.

Dr. Peter Holmgren is the Director General of the Center for International Forestry Research (CIFOR). Prior to CIFOR, he led the Climate, Energy and Tenure division at the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations, developing the profile and coordination of FAO’s climate change work and contributions of FAO to the UNFCCC process.

Ms. Hou received her B.A. in Environment Science and Accounting from Fudan University, China; and her M.A in Environment Management from Yale University. She has broad interests and research background in a variety of sustainable development issues ranging from industrial ecology and wetland conservation to the impact of climate change on developing countries. In between her studies, Ms. Hou has held various positions with local government NGOs and business consulting companies in China which built the foundation for her strong program management and stakeholder engagement skills. She has been leading TFD’s Forests and Climate Change Initiative since 2009 and currently she is managing all TFD’s initiatives including Food, Fuel, Fiber and Forests (4Fs) as well as its finance.

Hindou Oumarou Ibrahim is an indigenous woman from Mbororo pastoralist community of Chad, She is a coordinator of the Indigenous Women and Peoples Association of Chad (AFPAT), a community based organization. Hindou is a member of the Executive Committee of the Indigenous Peoples of Africa Coordinating Committee (IPACC), in which she is a representative of the Congo Basin Region, with a background in indigenous peoples’ rights and environment protection with the three Rio Conventions (biodiversity, climate change and desertification) with multiple responsibilities. She has written many publications, consultations, articles and documents n these areas. Hindou is expert in adaptation and mitigation of indigenous peoples to climate change, and traditional knowledge on the adaptation of pastoralists in Africa. She is also a policy board member of the United Nations- Indigenous Peoples Partnership (UNIPP) and a member of Reseau Climat & Development and RPP Chad National committee. She is the chair of recruitment and Deputy Rep of the Pan-African Alliance Climate Justice (PACJA).

Emilia Janeczko, Ph.D., is a landscape architect who specializes in forestry. She is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Forest Utilization at the Faculty of Forestry at Warsaw University of Life Sciences in Poland. Her research interests concern: forest landscape planning, tourism and recreation development and social needs and preferences regarding recreation in forest.

Dr. Andy Jarvis is the Leader of the Decision and Policy Analysis Program in the International Centre for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT) and is a Theme Leader for the Research Program for Climate Change, Agriculture and Food Security (CCAFS), and is based in Cali, Colombia. He has a PhD in Geography from King’s College London, having studied the micro-scale distribution of diversity in tropical tree species in the Amazon and the Andes. Andy has 10 years experience of cutting edge scientific research in developing countries to support the goals of alleviating poverty and protecting essential ecosystem services. His research has focused on the use of spatial analysis and environmental modeling to address issues such as agricultural biodiversity conservation, adaptation to climate change, and maintenance of ecosystem services.

Prior to joining the WBCSD in Geneva, Uta completed a Master of Science in Sustainability Management at Columbia University in New York City. During her studies she focused in particular on forest related sustainability issues. Uta gained extensive business experience in the hotel and tourism industry, as well as the financial sector. Born and raised in Germany, she has also lived and worked in the US, Switzerland and Spain. At the WBCSD, Uta is the project associate for the Forest Solutions Group, a group of 25 global companies along the forests products value chain, aiming to bring more of the world’s forests under sustainable management. In this role, she coordinates the group’s various work streams ranging from building capacity in sustainable procurement of wood and paper-based products, to raising awareness about the carbon benefits of forests and forest products. Together with the Forest Solution Group Uta is also strongly engaged with The Forests Dialogue in project streams such as 4Fs (Food, fuel, fiber and forests).

H.E. Stanislaw Kalemba is the Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development in Poland. He is responsible for food safety. His responsibilities also include plant and animal breeding. His competences focus on the development of rural areas, including direct payments.

Before becoming Minister, he has been active in the Parliamentary Committees for Local Self-Government, Agriculture and European Union Affairs. In the Agriculture Committees he performed the function of the President and Deputy President, and before Poland joined the European Union, he was the Deputy President of the European Integration Committee.

Dr. Robert Kibugi is a Kenyan environmental lawyer who holds Doctor of Laws (LL.D) degree from the University of Ottawa. He also holds a Bachelor of Laws (LL.B) and Master of Laws (LL.M – environmental law) from the University of Nairobi. Dr. Kibugi is currently a Lecturer in Environmental Law at the Centre for Advanced Studies in Environmental Law and Policy (CASELAP), University of Nairobi where he teaches post-graduate classes at the Masters level and Ph.D seminars.

Selam Kidane is an Environmental Law Expert/Negotiation team member in the Environmental Protection Authority of the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopoia. She holds an LLB degree from Mekelle University, College of Law and Governance. Ms.Abebe took environmental law courses in her studies and wrote her senior thesis on the Enforcement of Multilateral Environmental Agreements. Currently, she is working on her LLM degree on International Economic Law focused on analyzing the theme of green economy. She is also coordinating and overseeing the implementation of a national Strategy on climate change named Climate Resilient Green Economy Strategy of Ethiopia. Ms. Abebe is a member of the negotiating team from the UNFCCC. Before joining the Environmental Protection Authority, she briefly worked for the English weekly Newspaper Addis Fortune as a court reporter and legal analyst on environmental and trade negotiation.

At the beginning of his career, Romano obtained a master’s degree in soil and water management at the University of Wageningen, in the Netherlands, followed by a PhD from the University of East Anglia. His main research work is in computerized modeling of crop production for decision making in soil and water management regimes, and prediction of sustainable land use systems. He has over 48 publications in journal articles, book chapters, conference papers and reports. He was also appointed as the Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Agriculture, and as the host country representative to the ILRI Board by the Kenya Government in 2004. He is a member of the board of trustees of four international agricultural research (CGIAR) organizations and has been a member/or chair of twelve technical advisory committees at national, regional and international levels.

Gabrielle Kissinger is active in consulting services and her research focus is on reducing GHG emissions from land-use in the agriculture and forestry sectors, policy and government affairs, innovative financing for sustainable land management and private sector engagement.  Gabrielle Kissinger has worked for 20 years at the interface between government policy, markets and land use pressures, from local to national and international scales, and with a range of companies, investors, major donors and NGOs.  She holds a M.A. in natural resources management and environmental policy from Tufts University, and B.A.’s in philosophy and political science from University of California, Santa Barbara.

H.E. Minister Marcin Korolec is the Polish Minister of Environment and President of the UNFCCC COP19. He is a lawyer, career civil servant and negotiator. His aim is to achieve a balance between the needs of the environment and the economy, in order to seamlessly unite environmental protection and economic growth. He sees environmental protection as an interdisciplinary field, having a direct influence on many other policy areas and being strongly influenced by international arrangements and standards.

Raffaela Kozar is a Senior Program Manager for the Landscapes and Leaders Program at EcoAgriculture Partners and a Co-leader of the Landscape Strengthening Working Group for the Landscapes for People, Food and Nature (LPFN) Initiative. She specializes in capacity development and institutional strengthening for sustainable development at the sub-national level. At EcoAgriculture, Raffaela’s work focuses on strengthening landscape initiatives and demonstrating the on-the-ground effectiveness of landscape management approaches through multi-stakeholder landscape facilitation, assessment, planning, capacity development and technical assistance services. Prior to her work at EcoAgriculture Partners, Raffaela was the coordinator for the Community Development and Local Government Sector of the Millennium Villages Project at the Earth Institute where she was based in both New York and Bamako, Mali. Raffaela was a US Peace Corps Volunteer in Malawi where she supported agroforestry practices and alternative livelihoods in communities adjacent to protected areas. She holds a Master of International Affairs from the School of International and Public Affairs at Columbia University and a B.A. in International Relations and Environmental Policy and Analysis from Boston University.

Rachel Kyte is Vice President of Sustainable Development at the World Bank. She has overall responsibilities for the organization’s global work in agriculture, infrastructure, urban development, environment, disaster risk management, and social development. Ms. Kyte is responsible for driving the World Bank’s leadership on inclusive green growth and climate change.

Tony La Viña has been a negotiator for the Philippines in the UNFCCC negotiations since 1995. Prior to becoming the dean of the Ateneo School of Government, he was a senior fellow and biological resources programme director at the World Resources Institute and the Undersecretary of Environment and Natural Resources in the Philippines.

Gernot Laganda started his career as a researcher with the U.S. Geological Survey in California. In 1999, he joined the Austrian Bureau for International Research and Technology Cooperation, where he was responsible for the appraisal and transfer of environmental technologies. After spending three years working with an Austrian NGO and the United Nations Development Programme in Afghanistan and sub-Saharan Africa, Gernot joined the newly established Austrian Development Agency to coordinate its global Disaster Management and Humanitarian portfolio. In 2007, Gernot joined the Asia/Pacific Center of the United Nations Development Programme to advise vulnerable countries on the design and implementation of climate risk management strategies and climate change adaptation programmes. He joined the International Fund for Agricultural Development in 2012 to coordinate IFAD’s Adaptation for Smallholder Agriculture Programme (ASAP). Gernot holds a Masters of Engineering degree in Applied Geosciences from the Austrian University of Leoben, a Masters of Arts degree in Public Policy from the University of York (UK), a postgraduate Diploma in Disaster Management from the University of South Africa and a postgraduate Certificate in International Development Cooperation from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology.

Dr. Andrey Laletin is founder and Board member of Friends of the Siberian Forests in Russia and Chairman of the Board of the Global Forest Coalition.

Agnes Leina is the Executive Director of Il’laramatak Community Concerns (ICC), a group that promotes the human rights of pastoralist communities in northern and southern Kenya, with a special emphasis on women and girls. Agnes Leina is an Indigenous woman from Kenya with links to the Masai, Samburu, Turkana, Somali, Borana and Rendele peoples.

Andre Leu is Chair of the Organic Federation of Australia (OFA), the peak body for the Australian Organic sector. Its role is to develop the Australian organic sector into a major component of Australian agriculture that delivers benefits to consumers, producers and the Australian environment. Andre is a tertiary qualified adult educator, with university degrees in Communications and Education. Andre conducts workshops on organic production in Australia and other countries and teaches horticulture and environmental subjects. He has over 39 years of experience in all areas of organic agriculture from growing, pest control, weed management, marketing, post harvest, transport, grower organizations, developing new crops and education in Australia and in many other countries. He has an extensive knowledge of farming and environmental systems across Asia, Europe, North America, South America and North Africa from 30 years of visiting and working these countries. He has written and published extensively on many areas of organic agriculture including climate change, the environment, and the health benefits organic agronomy. Andre and his wife own an organic tropical fruit orchard, in Daintree, Queensland that supplies quality controlled fruit to a range of markets from local to international.

Bruno Locatelli has a background in environmental sciences (Master degree in science and technology, 1993; Forest Engineer degree, 1995; Master degree in hydrology, 1995; Doctoral degree in environmental sciences, 2000). His interest for forests and climate change started in 1993 with a work on carbon quantification with CIRAD. Later he conducted research on mechanisms for forests and mitigation (Clean Development Mechanism, Payment for Ecosystem Services) especially between 2002 to 2007 when he was with CIRAD and CATIE in Costa Rica. In 2005, his activities shifted from mitigation to adaptation. He is now working on forests and adaptation to climate change with CIRAD and CIFOR and is based in Indonesia.

Enrique Muñoz López earned his Bachelor’s degree in Geography in 1992 and MA in Geography in 2009 from the School of Geography at the National Autonomous University of Mexico. He worked as a specialist in geographic information systems from 1991-1995 at a consulting firm in environmental impact projects and watershed diagnosis in Mexico. From 1995-2012 he served as chief manager of geographic information systems of the National Commission for the Knowledge and Use of Biodiversity. He has participated in various geographical events, such as the selection of areas of importance for biodiversity conservation, in the regionalization of Terrestrial Ecoregions of Mexico and some projects related to GIS and remote sensing for conservation natural resources and watershed management. From some of his publications, the most recent is the participation in “Spatial Analysis of Species Richness” and “Historical Locations Geo-Referencing Biological Collections” in Biodiversitas, national magazine. Since March 2012 to date, he serves as the Coordinator of Spatial Analysis in Biological Corridors Department at the National Commission Biodiversity.

Dr. Kuntoro Mangkusubroto is the Head of President’s Delivery Unit for Development Monitoring and Oversight (UKP4) in Indonesia. This unit is responsible for overseeing the progress of the country’s National Priorities as implemented by Line Ministries and other government agencies, resolving bottlenecks in implementation. Most notably, he has also led the Presidential Taskforce against Judicial Mafia and the National Taskforce for Reduction of Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation (REDD+). Dr. Mangkusubroto is also the Head of the National Commission on the post-2015 Development Agenda. As Head of the National REDD+ Task Force, Dr. Mangkusubroto led the USD 1 billion Indonesian-Norwegian Climate and Forest Partnership to help catalyze a transition to climate friendly sustainable management of forest resources and green economic development in Indonesia. Although the Task Force has completed its mandate recently, President Yudhoyono has assigned Dr. Mangkusubroto to continue to lead the process and oversee the operationalization of the newly created National REDD+ Agency.

Mr. Mark Manis has been employed by the U.S. Department of Agriculture since 1977.  Currently Mr. Manis is Senior Policy Advisor for the Foreign Agricultural Service, Office of Negotiations and Agreements. He is responsible for representing the U.S. Department of Agriculture in a variety of climate change matters, including the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change negotiations. From 1977 to 2001 Mr. Manis worked for the Food Safety and Inspection Service.  While with the Food Safety and Inspection Service he held the following positions: Director Labor Management Division, Director Import Inspection Division, and Director International Policy Division. Mr. Manis holds a BA, with honors, in political science from Hobart College; an MA in political science from the University of Chicago, and a JD from the American University Washington College of Law.

Dr. Nur Masripatin is the Director of the Centre for Standardization and Environment, Ministry of Forestry, Indonesia. She has engaged in climate change negotiations and has been the REDD+ Lead Negotiator in UNFCCC meetings for the past few years. She is currently the Coordinator of ASEAN Regional Knowledge Network on Forest and Climate Change (ARKN-FCC), and the Coordinator of Safeguards Information System (SIS-REDD+) development in Indonesia. Before taking up the current assignment she held multiple leadership roles in the Forestry Research and Development Agency as the Director of some the R & D Centres. She was also the Lead Author of Indonesia REDD+ Readiness Strategy and the FCPF –REDD+ Readiness Plan.

During the past 15 years he has been managing and co-ordinating projects, primarily in Asia. His current responsibilities include developing the SNV REDD+ strategy and co-ordinating SNV’s REDD+ portfolio across Asia and Africa. This portfolio includes 9 projects and 40 staff, covering activities in Vietnam, Lao PDR, Indonesia, DRC and Ghana. Richard is a member of the World Bank FCPF Technical Advisory Panel and was the lead consultant in the development of Vietnam’s Readiness Preparation Plan.

Dr. Mishra is working as Agriculture Adviser for the Planning Commission of the Government of India since November, 2012. Previously he has served as Principal Scientist in ICAR; Officer on Special Duty to the Agriculture Commissioner and Deputy Commissioner in the Ministry of Agriculture, involved in policy planning and implementation of programmes including the National Food Security Mission and National Initiatives on Climate Resilient Agriculture (NICRA). He earned his Doctorate Degree in Agronomy in 1993.

Daniel Murdiyarso is currently holding a position as principal scientist at the Center for International Forestry Research (CIFOR). He received his first degree in Forestry from Bogor Agricultural University (IPB), Indonesia. His PhD was obtained in 1985 from the Department of Meteorology, University of Reading, UK. He is a Professor at the Department of Geophysics and Meteorology, IPB. His research works are related to land-use change and biogeochemical cycles, climate change mitigation and adaptation. He has published a large number of articles in peer-reviewed journals and book chapters on these areas. Dr Murdiyarso played an extensive role in the Nobel Peace Prize-winning IPCC when he was a Convening Lead Author of the IPCC Third Assessment Report and the IPCC Special Report on Land-use, Land-use Change and Forestry. Recently he served as Review Editor of the IPCC Fourth Assessment Report. In 2000 he served the Government of Indonesia as Deputy Minister of Environment for two years, during which he was also the National Focal Point of the UNFCCC and CBD. Since 2002 Professor Murdiyarso is a member of the Indonesian Academy of Sciences.

Esther Mwangi is a senior scientist in the Forests and Governance Programme of CIFOR. Her areas of research interest include the dynamics of property rights to land and natural resources, multilevel linkages in resource governance, gender, policy implementation and strategies for linking knowledge to action. Mwangi’s current research portfolio includes research on the impacts of biofuels expansion, especially on the factors that determine the effectiveness of community and civil society organising in response to large-scale land acquisitions. She is also researching the factors that enhance or impede women’s (and men’s) management and decision-making in forestry at multiple levels of governance. Her most recent project is concerned with understanding the interface between land and forest tenure and land use planning, and how cross-level coordination might be strengthened to improve community participation. Her work is mainly in East Africa, Indonesia and Nicaragua. Mwangi is a citizen of Kenya and has a bachelor’s degree in education (botany, zoology) from Kenyatta University, a Master of Philosophy in environmental studies from Moi University and a PhD in public policy from Indiana University, Bloomington.

Shahid earned his M.A. and Ph.D. in zoology from the University of California, Berkeley, in 1990 and was a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Michigan, the University of Copenhagen and the Imperial College of London. He served on the faculties of the University of Minnesota and the University of Washington before joining Columbia University in 2003. With over one hundred publications to his name, Naeem’s research includes studies of plants, animals and microorganisms in terrestrial, freshwater and marine ecosystems. He co-chaired the 2005 Millennium Ecosystem Assessment Biodiversity Synthesis Report and leads two research coordinating networks funded by the National Foundation for Science. Now a member of the recently formed Earth Institute Faculty, he co-leads a consortium that includes the American Museum of Natural History, the New York Botanical Garden, the Wildlife Conservation Society and the Wildlife Trust, and his teaching and research will contribute significantly to making biodiversity an important part of the Earth Institute’s overall mission to achieve sustainable development. He has been the recipient of several awards and fellowships including the Buell and Mercer awards from the Ecological Society of America and an Aldo Leopold Leadership Fellowship in 2001.

Robert Nasi joined CIFOR in August 1999 and holds several research and management positions in the organization (principal scientist, biodiversity programme leader, programme director). He is currently, since August 2011, the Director of the CGIAR Research Program on Forests, Trees and Agroforestry. His particular research interests include the sustainable use of forest products and multiple-use management of tropical forests. His scientific work aims to integrate social and biological sciences for better management of tropical forests, more sustainable livelihoods and better designed forest policies.

Henry Neufeldt is Head of the Climate Change Unit at the World Agroforestry Centre (ICRAF) in Nairobi, Kenya. The unit focuses on climate impacts, adaptation, mitigation, food security and sustainable development in the context of agroforestry systems. He is particularly interested in questions related to the governance, economics and scalability of biocarbon projects and climate-smart agriculture; quantitative benefits of improved NRM to adapt to climate shocks; and measurement and modeling of GHG fluxes from complex agro-ecosystems. He is also the ICRAF focal point for the CGIAR Research Programs on Climate Change, Agriculture and Food Security (CCAFS) and Forest, Trees and Agroforestry (FTA).

Gian L. Nicolay is the Africa coordinator of FiBL, the Research Institute of Organic Agriculture, based in Switzerland. Gian is a trained agronomist and sociologist and has worked as a professional for FAO, NGOs and as a consultant over 24 years on agriculture and rural development projects especially in Africa and Haiti. He joined FiBL in 2009. He carries out his work on food and agriculture systems from an action-research perspective. His interest is in understanding the social system realities of food security, climate smart agriculture and food systems as well as rural development dynamics in order to develop in a participatory manner with partner institutions, integrated research for development methodologies and tailored-made programs and operations.

Ville Matti Niinistö (born July 30, 1976) is a Finnish politician. He is a member of the parliament, current chairperson of the Green League, incumbent Minister of the Environment and a member of the city council of Turku. Niinistö has a master’s degree in political science from the University of Turku. Before being elected to the parliament in 2007 he worked as a doctorate student in political history (Finnish foreign policy) at the University of Turku in Finland.

Mr Nutsukpo is the Deputy Director of Environment, Land and Water Management for the Ministry of Food and Agriculture of Ghana. He holds a Master of Philosophy Degree in Soil Science from the University of Ghana and has, for the past 20 years, been involved in promoting improved land and environmental (including climate change) management within the food and agriculture sector in Ghana. He contributed to the Ghana Chapter of the IFPRI report “West African Agriculture

and Climate Change – A Comprehensive Analysis”.

Michael Obersteiner is leader of the Ecosystems Services and Management (ESM) Program at IIASA. He joined IIASA’s Forestry Program (FOR) in 1993 and has been leading the Group on Global Land-Use Modeling and Environmental Economics since 2001. His background includes the fields of global terrestrial ecosystems and economics, specializing in REDD and REDD+ modeling as well as policy assessments with particular expertise on the tropical forest zones of South America, Africa and Asia. He completed graduate studies both in Austria (BOKU University and Institute for Advanced Studies Vienna) and abroad (Columbia University, New York and Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Novosibirsk). He is author of over 230 scientific papers and consultancy reports.

Tomasz Okruszko is a head of Division of Hydrology and Water Resources and Professor at Warsaw University of Life Sciences, Faculty of Civil and Environmental Engineering.  He is also appointed as a guest professor at Antwerp  University. His main fields of expertise are integrated water resources management and wetland hydrology. He is a chairman of Global Water Partnership in Poland and chairman of  Biebrza National Park scientific board. He is also a member of Water Management Committee of Polish Academy of Sciences.

Agnes works to develop and strengthen CARE2s climate change adaptation work and to enhance integration of social and gender equity into CARE’s global climate change programming and advocacy. In her current role, Agnes works closely with the Adaptation Learning Programme for Africa, and represents CARE in the Global Gender and Climate Alliance.

Dr. Rajendra Kumar Pachauri is the Chair of the Nobel Peace Prize-winning Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), the scientific intergovernmental body that provides decision-makers and the public with an objective source of information about climate change. He is also Director General of TERI (The Energy and Resources Institute), a major independent research organisation providing knowledge on energy, environment, forestry, biotechnology, and the conservation of natural resources. Dr Pachauri is a prominent researcher on environmental subjects, recognised internationally for his efforts to build up and disseminate greater knowledge about man-made climate change and to lay the foundations for the measures that are needed to counteract such change.

Marcin Pałys is the 44^th Rector of the University of Warsaw and Professor at the Faculty of Chemistry. He is also Vice-president of the Conference of Rectors of Universities in Poland. Prior to becoming Rector, Professor Pałys served as Vice-rector for Development and Financial Policy from 2008 to 2012, and Vice-Dean for Finances at the Faculty of Chemistry from 2005 to 2008. As Vice-rector Professor Pałys facilitated strategic planning and initiatives such as development of UW Centre of New Technologies and UW Biological and Chemical Research Centre. He was also responsible for University’s budgetary policy. Marcin Pałys graduated from the University of Warsaw (M.Sc. in 1987) and received his doctoral degree at the University of Twente (Enschede, the Netherlands, 1992). He became Professor in 2010.

Professor Pałys’s field of expertise covers inorganic and physical chemistry, in particular: transport phenomena in electrochemical systems, chemical processes modelling and supramolecular systems.

Naya Sharma Paudel has over two decades of research and development experiences on environmental governance, policy process and civic movements. His research and publications are focused on forest policy and governance, participatory resources management, nature conservation and livelihoods. In recent years he is increasingly involved in studying political ecology of climate change, REDD and forest governance.  His policy engagement Nepal’s forest governance involves strategic policy analysis, networking and facilitating policy dialogue.

H.E Mrs. Tumusiime Rhoda Peace is Commissioner for Rural Economy and Agriculture at the African Union Commission a position she has held since 2008. Prior to that she served in the Government of Uganda as Commissioner for Agricultural Planning and previously as Commissioner for Gender. She holds a Masters Degree in Agricultural Economics from the University of Manchester in the U.K., and a Bachelors Degree in Agriculture from Makerere University in Uganda. Her current portfolio covers crop agriculture, livestock, fisheries, forestry, water, land, environment, climate change and climate services, and disaster risk reduction, for which she coordinates continental policy harmonisation, partnership building, resource mobilisation and advocacy.

Gill’s research focusses on the quality of evidence for science-policy dialogue and for constructing relevant research agendas. Other sectors have well-established procedures for using systematic, evidence-informed approaches to science-policy dialogue. These include Health Care (Cochrane Collaboration), Social Welfare (Campbell Collaboration),  and Environmental Conservation (Collaboration for Environmental Evidence – CEE). Her research aims to draw on their experiences to examine the potential for establishing a similar ‘collaboration without walls’ to prioritize and produce systematic reviews and improve the quality of the natural resources science that informs policy.

Since 2005, Ms. Piatto has been working at Imaflora, a Brazilian NGO, in the field of Agriculture and Climate Projects. Her work involves the certification of farms based on good agriculture practices, environmental conservation and human rights under the Sustainable Agriculture Network, Rainforest Alliance seal. She is also involved in projects related to low carbon agriculture and REDD+ safeguards in the Amazon rainforest. Marina has a degree in Agronomic Engineering from São Paulo State University in Brazil and holds a Masters degree in Tropical Agriculture from Bonn University in Germany. At the University of California she spent a year as a Humphrey fellow from the Fulbright Program.

Helena works as an environmental consultant, focusing on economic incentives for tropical forest conservation. Together with the University of Michigan and CCAFS, Helena has been developing a study that aims to understand how the Brazilian institutional context influences the development of the Sustainable Agriculture Network cattle certification program. Helena has a degree in Biology from São Paulo University and holds a Masters degree in Applied Ecology and Conservation from the University of East Anglia (UK). During the Masters, Helena’s studies focused on the impacts of a Payment for Ecosystem Services program on traditional communities in the Brazilian Amazon.

Martin Poulsen is a Partner at Moringa Partnership. From 2009-2011 Martin served as Chief Private Equity Officer at the African Development Bank. Previously, between 2003 and 2009, he led the European Investment Bank (EIB) private equity investment activities in sub-Saharan Africa and in the European renewable energy field. From 1997-2002, he was a member of the team that established Kennet Capital, one of Europe’s leading early-stage technology venture capital firms. Immediately before this, he worked for the Commonwealth Development Corporation as a project manager in Côte d’Ivoire (rubber factory design and construction) and Swaziland (project management of sugar refinery construction). His early career was in change management consultancy for Computer Sciences Corporation (CSC). Martin previously served as a member of the Emerging Markets Private Equity Association (EMPEA) Africa Council. He has a Master’s degree in Manufacturing Engineering and a first class Bachelor’s degree in General Engineering from Cambridge University. He is a fluent speaker of English, French, Dutch and German.

Dorcas Robinson is a social scientist with programming, research and advocacy expertise in rights-based approaches to social and economic development. She has worked with CARE USA for 12 years, in roles that have included development of the CARE collaboration with the Atkinson Center for a Sustainable Future at Cornell University, and of the CARE-WWF Alliance with a focus on sustainable and just food systems.

Since 1997 Eduardo Rojas-Briales has been on a number of international boards and panels, amongst others, the EFI Scientific Advisory Board from 1998 to 2002. He is a member of the Forest Science and Technology Research Group of the Polytechnic University of Valencia and of the IUFRO Forest Legislation Working Group. In February 2013, Mr Rojas-Briales was nominated UN Commissioner-General for EXPO 2015 by Mr Ban Ki-moon, Secretary-General of the United Nations.

Vanda Ferreira dos Santos is the Knowledge Sharing Officer at CIFOR. She holds a PhD in Information Management, has more than 20 years’ experience on knowledge management with focus on forestry of which the last 10 years have been in increasingly responsible roles in international assignments within the UN System. She coordinates the promotion of knowledge sharing throughout CIFOR.

Carlos Alberto de Mattos Scaramuzza: crazy about orchids since childhood; B.Sc. in Biology, 1986, and Ph.D. in Ecology, University of São Paulo, Brazil, 2006. He has more than 25 years of professional experience related to biodiversity conservation in public policies. His main background encompasses the development of linkages between technical and scientific research and biodiversity conservation on the ground, as well as conservation programs and project management more broadly. His major areas of expertise are: conservation biology; landscape, vegetation (subtropical grasslands, neotropical savanna and rainforests) and community ecology; land use and land cover dynamics; and use of ecological modeling, remote sensing and geographical information system tools. He was part of the WWF-Brazil team from 2003-2012, as Landscape Ecology Lab Coordinator and Thematic and Regional Programs Director. Last May, he joined the Secretary of Biodiversity and Forest in the Brazilian Ministry of Environment as Director of the Biodiversity Conservation Department, responsible for national public policies development related to sustainable use and  systematic conservation planning of species and ecosystems.

Dr. Sara J. Scherr is the Founder and President of EcoAgriculture Partners, a non-profit that works with agricultural communities around the world to develop eco-agriculture landscapes that enhance rural livelihoods, have sustainable and productive agricultural systems, and conserve or enhance biodiversity and ecosystem services.

Mr Matthias Schwoerer, as head of the European and International Forest Policy Division, is working with the Federal Ministry of Food, Agriculture and Consumer Protection. He has been an advisor on national and international forest policy for more than 20 years. He has been engaged, inter alia, in the MCPFE or Forest Europe process since its inception, was EU chief negotiator at UNFF for the Forest Instrument in 2007 and is now German chief negotiator for the European forest convention. At national level he was leading the National Forest Program (2000 – 2007).

His Royal Highness Prince Seeiso Bereng Seeiso of the Kingdom of Lesotho is the younger brother of Lesotho’s king, Letsie III, and son of the southern African country’s late King Moshoeshoe II (1938–1996) and the late Queen ‘Mamohato Bereng Seeiso (1941–2003). He is the current Lesotho High Commissioner to the United Kingdom. In April 2006, he and Prince Harry of Wales formed a charity called Sentebale to support organizations working with Lesotho’s disadvantaged young people and children, particularly those orphaned as a result of HIV and AIDS.

Seth Shames analyzes and advocates for policies and financial mechanisms to support integrated agricultural landscape management. His areas of work have included payments for ecosystem services in agricultural landscapes, climate-smart agriculture, the integration of agricultural issues into the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change and the UN Convention on Biological Diversity, environment and development policies in East Africa, eco-labeling of agricultural products and sustainable biofuels production.

Dr Eklabya Sharma, Director Programme Operations at the International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development (ICIMOD), is an ecologist with over 30 years of experience in developing, managing, and implementing programmes mainly on sustainable natural resource management in the Hindu Kush Himalayan region.

Tony has worked for 28 years on issues at the tropical agriculture/forestry interface in more than 40 developing countries. This has spanned the private sector (Shell Forestry), academia (University of Oxford), official development assistance (ODA/DFID) and research (CGIAR). He holds a Bachelors degree from Massey University, NZ as well as Masters and Doctoral degrees from Cambridge University, UK. In 2009, he was made an Honorary Professorship in Tropical Forestry at the University of Copenhagen. Tony is a Board member of Africa Centre Technology Studies, Plant Resources of Tropical Africa, Livelihood Fund and DCM International Imaging. He is also the Leader of IUFRO Forest and Water Task Force. He has published over 100 research papers and has sat on several journal editorial boards. He is passionate about the innovative and profitable change that the private sector can bring to development and landscape transformations.