International Conference on FORESTS FOR BIODIVERSITY …...a forester in southwest Germany. In 2015...

International Conference on

FORESTS FOR

BIODIVERSITY AND CLIMATE

BRUSSELS, Charlemagne building, 4-5 February 2020

Speakers Biographies

Opening of the Conference

Frans Timmermans

Frans Timmermans began his career with the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs in 1987. After taking part in the junior diplomat training programme, he worked at the European Integration Department of the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs and at the Embassy of the Netherlands in Moscow. He later worked for Hans van den Broek, European Commissioner for External Relations, and Max van der Stoel, High Commissioner on National Minorities for the OSCE. In 1998, Frans Timmermans was elected as a member of the House of Representatives for the Dutch Labour Party (PvdA), where he dealt principally with foreign affairs. In the fourth Balkenende government, from February 2007 to February 2010, Mr Timmermans was Minister for European Affairs. In 2010, Mr Timmermans returned to Parliament as the Labour Party's spokesperson on foreign policy. On 5 November 2012, Mr Timmermans became Minister of Foreign Affairs in the second Rutte government. Two years later, on 1 November 2014, he became First Vice-President of the European Commission, responsible for better regulation, interinstitutional relations, sustainable development, the rule of law and the Charter of Fundamental Rights. Since 1 December 2019, he is the Executive Vice-President of the European Commission, responsible for the Green Deal.

FORESTS FOR


#Biodiversity2020 and #ForestsEU

Environment

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Inspirational Speech

Peter Wohlleben

Peter Wohlleben is a German forester and author of the best-seller “The Hidden Life of Trees”. Mr Wohlleben studied at the Fachhochschule für Forstwirtschaft in Rottenburg am Neckar, followed by two decades as a civil servant in the Rhineland-Palatinate State Forestry Administration. Afterwards he worked as a forester in southwest Germany. In 2015 his book “The Hidden Life of Trees: What they Feel, How they Communicate: Discoveries from a Secret World” has been published. This book was followed by other best-seller books such as “The Inner Life of Animals: Love, Grief, and Compassion: Surprising Observations of a Hidden World”.

High-level panel on the role of forests for biodiversity and climate

change

Pascal Canfin

Pascal Canfin (born in Arras, August 22, 1974) is a Member of the European Parliament and Chair of the Environment Committee. He is part of the LaREM national party and Renew Europe group. He was formerly the head of the French section of WWF until March 25, 2019, and Minister for Development under the Minister of Foreign Affairs in the Ayrault Cabinet. Canfin previously served as a Member of the European Parliament from 2009 to 2012 as part of the Greens group. From July 2014 to December 2015, he was the Senior Advisor on Climate at World Resources Institute (WRI), ranked the most influential think tank in the world on environmental issues, on the preparation of the International climate summit to be held in Paris in December 2015 (COP21). For this matter, he also co-chaired with Alain Grandjean the Commission for innovative financing for climate, mandated by the President of the French Republic. he also co-directs since September 2014, with Olivier Nay, the master's degree "International Cooperation, Humanitarian Action and Development Policies" of the Panthéon-Sorbonne University. He is a financial market specialist. During his precedent term as MEP, he was member of the Economical affairs committee. Canfin was the rapporteur on the regulation of short selling and credit default swaps (CDS). His report was discussed in the Economic Affairs Committee in January 2011, and voted as such in the Plenary Session in July 2011. He has also been a negotiator on behalf of The Greens–European Free Alliance group on several legislative texts: Directive for a European Financial Transaction Tax; Regulation on Credit Rating Agencies; Markets in Financial Instruments Directive (MIFID); Directive on Alternative Investment Fund Managers (AIFM); European Market Infrastructure Regulation.

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Terhi Lehtonen

Terhi Lehtonen joined the Ministry of the Environment as State Secretary 4 July 2019 from European Commission Directorate General for Climate Action. Before DG CLIMA she advised the Greens/EFA group in the European Parliament on environmental and climate policy for 14 years. From 2001-2003 she worked as the head of office for MEP Heidi Hautala in Brussels and Strasbourg. Ms Lehtonen set up the European Office of City of Turku – Southwest Finland in Brussels in 1998 and represented the region towards the EU institutions until 2001. She also worked for the Finnish Embassy in Brussels as a trainee in 1997 and as an attachée during the 1999 EU Presidency. Mario Šiljeg

Mario Šiljeg graduated in 2000 at the Faculty of Chemical Engineering and Technology, where he received his PhD in 2008. He is an Assistant Professor and Research Associate in environmental engineering at the Faculty of Geotechnical Engineering, University of Zagreb. During his post-graduate education, Mr Šiljeg continued his professional development at the Chemical Institute in Ljubljana. He also worked as a Senior Researcher at the Hrvoje Požar Energy Institute and from 2011 to 2012 he was the Director of the Environmental Protection Agency. From 2005 to 2011, he was the Head of chemical technology projects at Vodotehnica d.d. from Zagreb. Mario Šiljeg specializes in project management in environmental engineering and has participated in the design, research and construction of numerous facilities in the water sector. From 2012 to 2015 he was a member of the parliamentary Committee for Environmental and Nature Protection from among public, scientific and professional staff. In 2016 Mr Mario Šiljeg was appointed as the Deputy Minister at the Ministry of Environmental and Nature Protection and in 2017 he was appointed as the State Secretary at the Ministry of Environment and Energy of the Republic of Croatia.

Rita Schwarzelühr-Sutter Rita Schwarzelühr-Sutter is parliamentary state secretary at the German Federal Ministry for Environment, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety since 2013. Until 2005, the graduate business economist was active in the areas of marketing, consulting and communication. She first became a member of the German Bundestag in 2005, where she headed the Sustainable Mobility working group in the SPD party executive from 2008 to 2009. Since 2014, she is the chairwoman of the board of trustees of the German Federal Environmental Foundation (DBU) as well as chairwoman of the supervisory board of the Society for Plant and Reactor Safety (GRS).

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Daniel Calleja Crespo

Before joining DG ENV on 1st September 2015, Mr Calleja was Director General of DG Internal Market, Industry, Entrepreneurship and SMEs till 31st August 2015. Previously, from February 2011 to January 2012, he was the Deputy Director General of DG Enterprise and Industry, and Special Envoy for SMEs. Mr Calleja was Director for Air Transport at the European Commission from November 2004 to February 2011, in charge of the single European aviation market, safety and security issues, and its external dimension. From 1993 to 2004 he worked in different positions in the cabinets of several Commissioners. Mr. Calleja was the Head of Cabinet for Commissioner Marcelino Oreja, responsible for institutional affairs, and for the Amsterdam Treaty negotiations. He was also the Head of Cabinet of the Vice-president of the European Commission, Mrs. Loyola de Palacio, in charge of Transport and Energy between 1999 and 2004. He started his career in the Commission as Member of the Legal Service between 1986 and 1993.

Mauro Petriccione

Graduated in Law from the University of Bari in 1982 and after a brief spell doing research at the same University, moved to London in 1984, first as a Visiting Research Scholar at the Institute of Advanced Legal Studies and then as postgraduate student at the London School of Economics. Obtained an LL.M. from the University of London in 1986 and joined the European Commission in September 1987. Worked in trade policy since then, covering a wide range of activities and negotiations: from trade defence to standards, investment, competition, WTO, dispute settlement, relations with Member States and European Institutions. From 2014 to early 2018, Deputy-Director General of DG Trade, responsible for trade relations concerning services and investment, intellectual property, public procurement, agri-food and fisheries; trade relations with Asia, Latin America and countries of Africa, the Caribbean and the Pacific; trade and sustainable development. Served as Chief Negotiator for the EU-Canada Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA); the EU-Vietnam Free Trade Agreement; the EU-Japan Economic Partnership Agreement. In March 2018 he has been appointed Director General for Climate Action.

María de los Ángeles Benítez Salas

María de los Ángeles Benítez Salas has worked as Deputy Director General in DG AGRI since 16 March 2016. She is in charge of three directorates responsible for International, Quality, Research and Innovation, Outreach, Strategy, Simplification and Policy Analysis. She is acting Director-General since 1 January 2020. A Spanish national, Ms Benítez Salas joined the European Commission in 1986 as Member of the Cabinet of Commissioner Abel Matutes, responsible for SME policy, and subsequently External Relations. After a stint at the EU Delegation in Buenos Aires, she first became Head of Unit in 1998 and was a Director in DG AGRI between 2006 and 2013. Her previous position was Deputy Head of European Political Strategy Centre, the European Commission's

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in house think-tank.

Anya Sitaram

Anya Sitaram is a journalist, communications consultant and professional conference moderator specialising in health, science and international development. A former news anchor and television reporter Anya Sitaram is Executive Producer at Rockhopper Media an award winning television and film production company. She has overseen scores of television documentaries which have run on channels around the world including BBC World News, PBS, Discovery, Nat Geo and Al Jazeera among others. Anya Sitaram has been moderating high level conferences for the European Commission and UN bodies for the last 15 years and moderates regularly at EU Green Week. Ms Sitaram began her career as a BBC trainee before becoming ITN Health and Science Correspondent and later a presenter on the BBC’s flagship science programme Tomorrow’s World.

1. Forest vulnerability and adaptation to climate change

Yvon Slingenberg

Yvon Slingenberg is Director in DG Climate Action of the European Commission, responsible for International climate negotiations and implementation of the Paris Agreement and mainstreaming of climate issues in EU policies (e.g. MFF). She is also actively involved in the discussions on the EU vision for a Long-term Strategy for a climate neutral Europe by 2050 (the “Clean Planet for all” Communication of November 2018). During the first two years of the Juncker Commission, she was Senior Adviser in the Cabinet of Commissioner Arias Cañete for Climate Action and Energy, where she contributed to the legislative framework for 2030 (climate proposals on EU Emissions Trading System (EU ETS), Effort Sharing and Land-use & Forestry, and energy proposals on energy efficiency, renewable energy sources and Energy Union Governance). Until November 2014 she was Head of Unit in the Directorate General for Climate Action of the European Commission in charge of the “Implementation of the EU Emissions Trading System", a market-based instrument and key tool of EU Climate Policy to drive emission reductions in the most cost-efficient manner. Previously, she was closely involved in the negotiations on the 2020 climate & energy package, and steered the adoption of numerous implementing measures necessary to enable the harmonised approach for phase 3 (2013-2020) of the revised ETS. Yvon is a lawyer of Dutch nationality with a degree in international law (specialisation in environmental law) from the University of Amsterdam. She speaks Dutch (mother tongue), English, French, German and Spanish.

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Mireia Mollà Herrera

Mireia Mollà Herrera (Elx, 1982) is the Valencian Ministry on Agriculture, Rural Development, Climate Emergency and Ecological Transition. During VII, VIII and IX legislatures she was regional deputy at Corts Valencianes and councilwoman on the municipality of Elche (Alicante) since 2015. In the regional parliament she held the position of deputy spokeswoman for the parliamentary group of Compromís as well as member of Economy, Budget and Finance commission. Between 2007 and 2011 she was also the spokeswoman on the regional Environment and Nuclear Safety, and the Special Commission for the study of climate change in the Valencian region. As councillor and member of the municipal corporation, she promoted ELX 2030 plan, which prepare the municipality through a series of environmental, sustainability and mobility services to be candidate for the European Green Capital on 2030. Since june 2019 she is the Valencian Ministry on Agriculture, Rural Development, Climate Emergency and Ecological Transition. On these months, has been launched the Valencian Climate Change Strategy during the COP 25, along Valencian Government has declared the "State of Climate Emergency" in order to put climate actions on the top priority of public policies in this region.

Xavier Morin

Xavier Morin completed a MSc in Forestry in 2001 In Nancy (FR) and then another one in Ecology in 2002 in Paris, before doing a PhD in Ecology in Montpellier (2002-2006) about the impact of climate change on tree species distribution. Then he spent 2 years in Montreal at the McGill University thanks to an EU Marie-Curie grant, where he was still working on modelling the impact of climate change on tree species distribution and on trees’ phenology. Then he went to ETH Zürich where he worked on the role of biodiversity on forest functioning. In 2011 Morin obtained a permanent researcher position at the CNRS in Montpellier, where he still works today. Most of his current works are focused on biogeography, community ecology and climate change impacts, with a dual approach mixing modelling and field-based studies. Recently Morin has been mostly working on depicting how tree diversity influence forest productivity, and how forest management may promote both diversity and productivity. Since 2019, he is the president of the NGO “Canopée – Forêts vivantes” aiming at defending forests, its biodiversity and its inhabitants across the world.

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Michal Wiezik

Michal Wiezik is an Associate Professor in Ecology, he specializes in landscape ecology, entomology and management of protected areas. Next to research and lecturing at the Technical University at the Faculty of ecology and environmental science he has been engaged as part of various expert groups in preparation of strategic documents at national level, including the Strategy for protection of the UNESCO site Ancient and Primeval Beech Forests of the Carpathians and Other Regions of Europe. Currently he is involved in setting the strategy of nature tourism in Slovakia. As of July 2019 he is a Member of the European Parliament for Slovakia, Together political party (SPOLU), which is affiliated to EPP Group.

Johan Litsmark

Johan Litsmark works at the largest non-life insurance company in Sweden and has a long experience in loss prevention and the handling of risks. Johan has special expertise in climate-related issues regarding agriculture and forestry as well as how we can build a robust and sustainable society and what measures should be taken to possibly prevent losses. Johan can, with his holistic perspective, explain the risks that society, as well as sustainable food supply and forestry face. “The purpose of an insurance company is to describe risk in economic terms by premiums and the costs of claims. We use this when interpreting costs associated with natural damage risks. In climate adaptation work in forest management, collaboration between industries, forest owners, authorities and decision makers are important”. Johan has a master in agricultural science and spend some of his private time taking care of his own forest 150 km west of Stockholm.

Silvio Schüler

Silvio Schüler is head of the Department for Forest Growth and Silviculture at the Austrian Research Centre for Forests (BFW) in Vienna since 2017. He and his team are responsible for developing strategies for sustainable forest management in Austria with regard to climate change and growing wood demand and by considering forests’ natural resources and biodiversity. Mr Schüler has a degree in biology of the University of Jena and has thereafter worked at the Thünen Institute in Hamburg. He joined the BFW in 2005 as Head of the Unit for Provenance Research and Breeding. One example of his projects is the online recommendation platform www.herkunftsberatung.at, a tool to find the best seed provenances for forest stands. Furthermore, he tested oak provenances and seed origins better adapted to drought and extreme climate events.

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2. Protecting and restoring the world’s forests -The EU

responsibility-

Astrid Schomaker

Astrid Schomaker is Director for Global Sustainable Development at the European Commission's Directorate General for the Environment. Her portfolio includes international relations, international resource efficiency, and environment policy strategy, including the alignment of environment policy with the 2030 Agenda and the Sustainable Development Goals. A lawyer by training, she joined the European Commission in 1992 where she held various posts in the external affairs department, before moving to the Environment Department in 2004 where she lead work on a variety of issues including, chemicals, oceans and water industry as well as overall coordination and communication. She took up her present position in July 2016.

Delara Burkhardt

Delara Burkhardt was elected to the European Parliament for the Social Democratic Party of Germany in 2019. As member of the S&D Group she sits in the European Parliament’s Committee on the Environment, Public Health and Food Safety. Delara Burkhardt is the European Parliament’s rapporteur on a legislative own-initiative report for an EU legal framework to halt and reverse EU-driven global deforestation.

Sini Eräjää

Sini Eräjää works for the Greenpeace European Unit in Brussels. Ms Eräjää is an Agriculture and Forest Campaigner at Greenpeace with 10 years of experience in political campaigning to protect the world's forests and change the way we use land. She has worked with environmental organisations in Finland, Russia and Brussels on topics ranging from forest management policy to bioenergy and agricultural policy to global drivers of deforestation. She loves forests and is terrified that we'll run out of time to stop climate change.

Nathalie Lecocq

Nathalie Lecocq is Director General of FEDIOL, the Brussels-based association representing the EU vegetable oil and protein meal industry in areas covering notably food and feed safety, environment, nutrition and trade. Building on member companies’ initiatives, Ms. Lecocq enhanced FEDIOL’s action and engagement in the areas of sustainable sourcing with a particular focus on

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soybeans and palm oil. Ms. Lecocq is a French citizen. She graduated in agro-economics from the Bonn University in Germany and has about 30 years of experience in representing European agri-food sectors towards the EU institutions and international organisations, having held positions in different EU business associations.

Felipe García Echeverri

Felipe García Echeverri is the Ambassador of Colombia to the Kingdom of Belgium, Grand-Duchy of Luxembourg and to the European Union. Ambassador García is a lawyer and social economist of the Pontifical Xaverian University with 28 years of professional experience. Appointed Justice of the National Electoral Council for the period 2014-2018 and acted as Vice President of the same organisation between 2014 and 2015. Studied Conflict Resolution and certified as a trainer of Conflict Management trainers by the Harvard Negotiation Institute. Certified as an International Arbitrator by the Supreme Court of Florida, United States of America.

3. Forest management practices and funding that promote high

biodiversity-value ecosystems

Luc Bas

Luc Bas is the Director of the IUCN European Regional Office in Brussels, representing IUCN towards the EU Institutions and providing leadership and guidance for all activities undertaken by IUCN Government and NGO members within the European context. This includes informing decision-making through IUCN’s knowledge on topics such as the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, Red Lists, Protected Area management, Natural Capital and promoting the use of nature-based solutions across different sectors. Prior to this, Luc was European Director of The Climate Group in Brussels, working with business and government to reach more ambitious EU climate policies and prepare for a true energy transition. As International Director of The Climate Group’s States and Regions Alliance, he established one of the most significant networks of sub-national governments leading on tackling climate change. Luc worked as adviser on international sustainable development policies for both the Belgian Federal and Flemish Governments, representing them at the UN Commission on Sustainable Development (SD), the OECD national SD expert panel, the Belgium Federal Council on SD, as well as at various networks of subnational governments. Luc holds a Master’s degree in industrial engineering and postgraduate degrees in both environmental science and international politics.

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Pierre Bascou

Pierre Bascou is the Director for Sustainability and income support, DG Agriculture and Rural Development, European Commission. Between 2010 and 2014 he was Head of the Unit responsible for Agricultural Policy Analysis and Perspectives. From 2003 until 2009 he was heading the Unit in charge of the economic analysis of EU agriculture for the conception, the management and the evaluation of the Common Agricultural Policy. He received his PhD in Agricultural Economics (1989) from the Imperial College London and Ingénieur in agronomy from ESA Toulouse in 1986.

Jørgen Bo Larsen

Jørgen Bo Larsen is professor emeritus (Forest Ecology and Silviculture) at University of Copenhagen and professor at Nanjing Forestry University in Nanjing, China. Former, he was professor (Forest protection) at Göttingen University, Germany. His research covers silviculture, genetics and forest tree breeding, gene conservation and gene ecology, forest ecology, eco-physiology, provenance research and forest protection with the objective of understanding processes and functions of forest ecosystems to facilitate the development of sustainable forest management approaches. He has been instrumental in developing and applying close-to-nature forest management in Denmark. He has served on the Board of several international forest research organizations including European Forest Institute (EFI, Board chair), International Forestry Research Center (CIFOR, Board member) and World Agroforestry Center (ICRAF, Board member).

Eckart Senitza

Eckart Senitza finished his studies at the University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences in Vienna at the Institute for Silviculture with his PHD regarding “Silvicultural basics of Cedrus Libani in Turkey”. After working at the Association of Austrian Land and Forest Owners with experience in e.g. public relations, environmental politics he returned to his home near Feldkirchen (Carinthia) in 1991. He started running a consulting bureau for forestry and simultaneously took over the family estate with 850 ha of forests, farm land, hunting & fishing, timber transports, hydroelectric etc. The main incentive was to continue nature based forestry in his own woodland and to expand the possibilities and fields of action of the whole enterprise. Meanwhile after 25 years the enterprise with 7 employees covers cutting and trading timber of about 10.000 m3 per year, single tree harvesting and almost pure natural regeneration, and consulting for private and public customers. He was leading different projects in international (Interreg) and regional (Leader) context. A steady process of innovation makes the bureau to a technology leader. GIS Software, database development, modelling as well as a lot of communication experience expand the

© Matjaž Cater

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possibilities. He is the president of Pro Silva Austria since 2012 and continues with a strong team and about 420 members. He intensified the contacts to the neighbouring countries Italy, Slovenija, Germany and Switzerland. Now he helps to build a network of exemplary forests in Austria and contributes establishing a net of reference stands for nature based best practice examples according the AFI standard.

Reinhardt Neft

Reihardt Neft is since March 2019 the President of the European State Forest Association (EUSTAFOR). Mr Neft is the Managing Director of the Bavarian State Forest Enterprise since 2005. As Managing Director he is responsible for the department of silviculture, nature conservacy, forest protection, hunting and fishing, the human resources department, the IT department and for 22 forest departments as well. Before 2005 he worked on different positions at the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry in Munich, Bavaria.

Hannah Mowat

Hannah Mowat is Campaigns Coordinator at Fern. She has over 10 years experience campaigning for stronger energy, climate and forest policies in European NGOs, and has published numerous reports and articles on finance and land rights, carbon trading, biodiversity offsetting, LULUCF and negative emissions. She previously worked at Friends of the Earth and the TMP Systems, and lives in Paris.

Hubert de Schorlemer

Hubert de Schorlemer is the President of the Confederation of European Forest Owners since 2012. He is a farmer and a forester in Luxembourg. He is the President of the Luxembourg Private Forest Owners Association and the President of the agricultural cooperative Naturschutzfleesch. He holds forests in Luxembourg which he is managing according to the principles of sustainable forest management and contain oak trees, spruce, pine and beech that are naturally regenerated. Mr de Schorlemer has a university degree of Agricultural Engineering from the University of Kiel (Germany).

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Wednesday 5 February 2020

4. Work in partnership with producing countries to protect and

restore forests

Claude Garcia

Claude Garcia is an ecologist by training. In the context of his research aimed at understanding tropical landscapes under change, he has developed approaches to embrace (i) ecosystem and their processes, (ii) stakeholders and their strategies and (iii) the norms and institutions the latter establish to regulate access to the former. He analyses the drivers and strategies involved in the decision-making processes of the stakeholders, with tools such as companion modelling. His goal is to balance conservation and development through better public policies bridging disciplines and taking into account local knowledge, constraints and opportunities. Claude has 15 years experience working in South and South East Asia, and has led large transdisciplinary reseach projects in the Congo Basin, Indonesia and Colombia.

Carla Montesi

Carla Montesi is currently Director at the European Commission’s Directorate General for Development and Cooperation. She has been responsible for the Directorate “Planet and Prosperity” since September 2018. Before that (2014-2018) she was Director for Western and Central Africa. Prior to 2014, she was Director at the Directorate General for Maritime Affairs and Fisheries. Initially responsible for fisheries conservation, control and structural actions for the Mediterranean and Black Sea, she has piloted maritime policy as well as fisheries and funding for the Baltic Sea, North Sea and Landlocked Member States. Formerly a lawyer in Italy who specialised in European affairs at the College of Europe in Bruges, Mrs Montesi's earlier career encompassed diverse responsibilities in the field of EU external policy for development and cooperation both at Headquarters and in EU Delegations in Africa, as well as experience in the Cabinet of EU Commissioner Emma Bonino for External Policy and Humanitarian Affairs.

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Lee White

Born in Britain, Dr Lee White holds a Ph.D. on forestry’s impact on wildlife and climate change (Zoology) from the University of Edinburgh. He has lived in Gabon for 30 years and became a Gabonese citizen in 2008. On 11 June 2019, by a decree of the President of Gabon and on the basis of a proposal submitted by the Prime Minister, he was appointed Minister Prior to becoming Minister, Dr Lee White served as the Director of the Gabonese National Parks Agency (ANPN) for ten years having previously spent almost 20 years with the American NGO, The Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS). Under his direction, the Gabonese National Parks Agency became a para-military force working alongside the army and the police to ensure sound governance of natural resources and to stop all forms of trafficking, including ivory, illegal fisheries, gold mining, and logging. Dr Lee White also served as Environmental Advisor for Gabon Vert (Green Gabon), Gabon’s Climate Change Negotiator for Forestry and Agricultural Issues, and ran the Blue Gabon Program (Gabon Bleu in French) launched by His Excellency President Ali Bongo Ondimba seven years ago. Dr Lee White’s achievements for environmental conservation in Gabon are recognized internationally and have contributed significantly to assert Gabon’s regional and global leadership on these issues. His recent nomination as Minister of Water, Forests, the Seas, the Environment, in charge of Climate Change, Sustainable Development Goals, and Land Use Plan is a clear testament of President Ali Bongo Ondimba’s determination to boost the forestry sector, and to ensure its sustainable development based on the principles of sound governance.

Abou Dosso

As a result of his training as an accounting, financial and IT auditor at PricewaterhouseCoopers in Abidjan (Ivory Coast), Mr. Abou Dosso has, in the course of his rich professional career, embraced various fields of activity. Indeed, after having acquired a solid experience in the management of industrial companies by successively holding the positions of Managing Director of Karité S.A (Coffee-Cocoa Trade) and Deputy Managing Director of LCCI S.A (Cotton Industry), he was Technical Adviser to the Ministry of State in charge of the Reconstruction and Reintegration Programme of his country. He was then, for 10 years, Deputy National Authorizing Officer of the European Development Fund and National Coordinator of the Coordination Unit for the Ivory Coast – European Union Cooperation. In 2017, he is appointed Deputy Permanent Representative of Ivory Coast to the European Union in Brussels, then Ambassador, Head of the Mission of Ivory Coast to the European Union and the European Atomic Energy Community. Since December 2019, Mr Abou DOSSO is the new Ambassador of Ivory Coast to the Kingdom of Belgium, the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg and the European Union.

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Hợp Vũ Thị Bích

Ms. Vũ Thị BíchHop is Chair for the Centre for Sustainable Rural Development (SRD). She has been working for NGOs for more than 20 years in Vietnam and elected Chair of the Vietnamese NGO & FLEGT (VNGO-FLEGT) network since 2012. She is also civil society Representative on the Program Executive Board-UNREDD Vietnam and the Chair of the Vietnamese NGO & Climate change Network (VNGO&CC).

David Coleman

David Coleman joined Mars in July 2015 as Vice President, Public Affairs Europe. As a member of the Mars Public Affairs Leadership Team, he leads the Brussels-based Government Relations Service Center team. In this capacity, he leads, directs and/or supports approach to the EU Institutions for Mars generally and specifically on issues relevant to one or more of the business segments that are part of Mars (e.g. Pet Care, Confectionary, Food). Mr. Coleman has 20 years experience representing business at an EU level, 15 years of which have been for industry-leading food and food service companies. His areas of focus range from - among others - consumer information systems through to sustainability issues, led by a desire to create mutual outcomes with stakeholders through corporate diplomacy. David holds a degree in Law and a Postgraduate Masters degree in EU Law. He is an Irish national, educated in both Ireland and France.

Christian Ruck

Christian Ruck is a high-level politician with proven expertise and a keen interest in nature conservation and forest management in the Congo Basin and beyond. The graduated economist was a member of the Bundestag, Germany´s federal parliament, from 1990 to 2013 with the CSU party. From 2002 to 2009, Dr Ruck was Chairman of the CDU/CSU´s working group on economic cooperation and international development. From 2009 to 2013, he was Vice-Chairman of the CDU/CSU parliamentary group responsible for economic cooperation, development, environment and nature conservation. In 2013, Dr Ruck assumed the position of Director of KfW´s Cameroon office with a broad portfolio, including the forestry sector. More recently, he covered KfW´s green sector portfolio in Tanzania. Dr Ruck was recently appointed as Facilitator of the Congo Basin Forest Partnership (CBFP) by the German Federal Government for the period of 2020-21.

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Thaís Linhares-Juvenal

Senior Forestry Officer and Team Leader of the Forest Governance and Economics Team in the Forest Policy and Resources Division of FAO. Since 2015, Thaís has been leading the FAO Forestry Department work on forest socioeconomic contributions to sustainable development, forest governance, approaches to forest conservation and sustainable use, forest-based bioeconomy, economics and finance. Since 2017, Thais has been the FAO leadership championing the Sustainable Wood for a Sustainable World, a joint initiative of the Collaborative Partnership on Forests – CPF, together with ITTO, CIFOR, CITES, the World Bank and the WWF. Before joining FAO Forestry Department, Thaís was active in the climate change agenda, having served the Secretariat of the UN-REDD Programme, and at national level, as Director of Climate Change of the Brazilian Ministry of Environment. Thaís is Brazilian, economist, and has an MSc degree in Environmental Policy and Regulation from the London School of Economics and Political Science.

5. Equipping the EU with the necessary forest information -Launch

of the Forest Information System for Europe (FISE)-

Mauro Facchini

Mauro Facchini is Italian and has an engineering background with a PhD in Mechanical Engineering. Before joining the European Commission he has worked in Italy, UK and Switzerland, mostly in the academic and research environment. He joined the European Commission in 2002 where he was initially involved in the management of research projects funded by the EU. Mauro Facchini has been involved in Space aspects and participated to the definition of the European Space Policy from its early days in concluding the Framework agreement with ESA and in drafting and including article 189 (EU Space Competence) in the Lisbon Treaty. He was actively involved in the development of Earth Observation capacities at the European Commission in the programme initially known as GMES. He was then appointed Head of the Space Research Unit and led the preparation of the space related part of Horizon 2020. He is since 2014 the head of Copernicus, the European Earth Observation programme.

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Key note speech

Hans Bruyninckx

Hans Bruyninckx is the Executive Director of the European Environment Agency since 1 June, 2013. In 1996 Dr Bruyninckx completed a PhD in international environmental politics at Colorado State University. From 2010 to 2013, he was head of the policy oriented research institute, HIVA, in Leuven, Belgium. He was head of the Political Science department at Leuven University from 2007 to 2010. Over the last 20 years, he has conducted research in areas including environmental politics, climate change, and sustainable development. He has taught on global environmental politics and global environmental governance in relation to the European Union (EU), publishing extensively on EU environmental policies and its role as an actor in global environmental governance. Throughout his career Dr Bruyninckx has worked with and advised governmental agencies, civil society and businesses.

Panel discussion

René Castro-Salazar

René Castro-Salazar holds a Bachelor’s degree in Civil Engineering from the Universidad de Costa Rica, a Master of Public Administration degree and Doctor of Design degree both awarded by Harvard University. Mr Castro-Salazar held ministerial positions in Costa Rica as Minister of Natural Resources, Minister of Foreign Affairs and Minister of Environment, Energy between 1994 and 2014. Mr Castro-Salazar was appointed Assistant Director-General for FAO, Forestry Department, and in December 2016 he was appointed Assistant Director-General for the new Climate, Biodiversity, Land and Water Department.

Gert-Jan Nabuurs

Gert-Jan Nabuurs is professor for European forest resources at Wageningen University and Research. His expertise is European scale forest resource analyses and carbon sequestration under climate change. He is IPCC Coordinating lead Author in the Sixth Assessment Report for Agriculture and Forestry. He is member of Ministerial Advisory Committee Sustainability of Biomass for Energy purposes.

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Carina Håkansson

Carina Håkansson is the Director General of Swedish Forest Industries Federation since September 2013. She has held a Master of Science in Forestry in 1990 and after that a several senior positions within Stora Enso for twenty years. During her last five years in Stora Enso Mrs Håkansson held the position as CEO/SVP of Stora Enso Wood Supply Sweden (WSS). During the period 2009-2013 Carina was the CEO of Dala Kraft AB an electricity trading company which gave her deep knowledge about Swedish electricity supply and energy markets.

Giovanni De Santi

Giovanni De Santi is, since September 2017, Director of the Directorate for Sustainable Resources at the Joint Research Centre of the European Commission. The Directorate provides independent scientific evidence to support the development, implementation, evaluation and coherence of EU policies, mainly in the areas of sustainable development, agriculture, Earth Observation (Copernicus), environment and climate change, blue growth and fisheries, bioeconomy, industry and trade. He previously served as Director of the JRC Institute for Energy and Transport. He has been working for the European Commission's Joint Research Centre since 1985. Giovanni De Santi holds a university degree in Mechanical and Nuclear Engineering and a PhD degree in Fluidodynamics.

6. Forests as allies for climate change mitigation

Beatriz Yordi

Beatriz Yordi is director in DG Climate Action since 2015 leading the team responsible for the EU Emissions Trading System, promoting carbon pricing and advancing innovation, opportunities and competitiveness in line with the Paris agreement. She specialised in fundamental physics at the University of Santiago de Compostela. A pioneer in renewable energy policies, she joined the European Commission in 1994, working on energy policy, Eco-innovation, Green businesses, LIFE programme in DG Energy, DG Environment and EASME. Her career began at the Research Centre CIEMAT followed by young chief engineer in Endesa-RWE and Naturgy’s joint venture designing and constructing the first European solar PV plant. .

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William Moomaw

William Moomaw is Emeritus Professor of International Environmental Policy at The Fletcher School, Tufts University. Mr Moomaw holds a PhD in chemistry from MIT. After helping to eliminate stratospheric ozone depleting chemicals in the U.S., he became the first director of the climate program at World Resources Institute. He has been a lead author of five Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Reports. He is currently working on natural solutions to climate change and policies and actions to increase carbon dioxide removal and sequestration by forests, wetlands and soils to compliment emission reduction from land use changes and fossil fuel combustion. Mr Moomaw chairs the board of directors of two climate organizations, Woods Hole Research Center that studies climate change and natural solutions, and The Climate Group North America that works with corporations and subnational governments to reduce climate altering emissions. He is co-author of the recent World Scientists’ Warning of a Climate Emergency signed by over 11,000 scientists from 153 countries. https://doi.org/10.1093/biosci/biz088

Jo House

Jo House is a Reader in Environmental Science and Policy at the University of Bristol, UK. She is research lead for Bristol’s Cabot Institute for the Environment, is director for the Masters programme in Climate Change Science and Policy, and is founding Co-Chair of the Bristol Advisory Committee on Climate Change. Jo specialises in emissions of greenhouse gasses from land use (e.g. deforestation, land management), and climate mitigation potential from the land (e.g. afforestation, bioenergy). She works on the science-policy interface, was seconded for a year to the UK Government Office for Science as Head of Climate Advice, and regularly gives advice to the UK Government, Scottish Government, Bristol City Council and other organisations. Jo has been an author many times for the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) (who shared the Nobel Prize in 2007) in all three working groups of the IPCC (Science, Impacts, and Mitigation), the Special Report on Climate Change and Land (2019), as well as for the IPCC methodologies for greenhouse gas inventories (including the 2019 Refinement) and the upcoming 6th Assessment Report. She was a convening lead author on the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment, a lead author on the Intergovernmental Technical Panel on Soils, and an author and science advisor for the New York Declaration on Forests Assessment Report (2019).

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Hannes Böttcher

Hannes Böttcher is Senior Researcher at Oeko-Institut in Berlin and coordinates the Group Biogenic resources and Land use. He holds an MSc degree in forest sciences and ecology from the University of Gottingen, Germany. In 2008 he received his PhD degree from the University of Freiburg. Previously Hannes Böttcher worked at the Max Planck Institute for Biogeochemistry in Jena, Germany on forest carbon modelling. From 2007 to 2013 he coordinated research related to GHG emissions from land use at the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis, Austria. Dr. Böttcher worked on and published research for more than 12 years on biomass potentials and sustainability criteria for the use of biomass, modelling of forest management options and their implications for the carbon balance, global monitoring of forests and activities for mitigating emissions from deforestation and forest degradation, as well as accounting rules in the land use sector in international climate policy.

Barbara Promberger

Barbara Promberger originates from Austria and is together with her husband Christoph co-founder and executive director of Foundation Conservation Carpathia, one of the largest private land conservation initiatives in Europe which works to create a world-class wilderness reserve in Romania’s Southern Carpathian Mountains. Barbara studied biology at the University of Vienna and moved to Romania in the 1990ies to study wolves, bears and lynx and their interactions with their natural prey. With the forest restitution in Romania and the following clear-cuts starting in 2005 all over the mountains, the focus shifted to stopping illegal cutting and protecting large natural landscapes and processes. Passionate about horses and exploring wild places, she and her husband have also created an equestrian eco-tourism facility right at the foot of Romania's Fagaras Mountains where they live with their two daughters.

Pierfrancesco Maran

Pierfrancesco Maran, Deputy Mayor for Urban Planning, Green Areas and Agriculture - Municipality of Milan. He was born in 1980 in Milan. Mr Maran has a degree in Political Science and has worked as a consultant. He was Councillor in the 3rd administrative area of Milan and City Councillor of Milan. From 2011 to 2016 he has been Deputy Mayor for Mobility, Environment, Subways, Public water and Energy. Among the policies he introduced, Area C and the development of car sharing have been the most relevant. In 2016 he has been reelected and he is currentily the Deputy Mayor for Urban Planning, Green Areas and Agriculture, where he's working on the regeneration of seven abandoned railway stations in Milan, which is one of the most important urban projects in Europe, in addition to the development of green and rural areas in the city.

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7. Manage land to prevent forest fires

Humberto Delgado Rosa

Humberto Delgado Rosa is the Director for Natural Capital, DG Environment, European Commission. Previously he was Director for Mainstreaming Adaptation and Low Carbon Technology in DG Climate Action. He is experienced in European and international environmental policy, particularly in biodiversity and climate change issues. He served as Secretary of State for the Environment of the Portuguese Government from March 2005 to June 2011. Between 1995 and 2002 he was an advisor for environmental matters to the Prime-Minister of Portugal. He holds a PhD in Evolutionary Biology. H. Delgado Rosa was born in Lisbon in 1960.

Nacira Boulehouat

Nacira works as Head of unit for "Prevention and Disaster Risk Management," in DG ECHO, European Commission. Prior to joining this unit, she worked in the Security Directorate of the European Commission Directorate General or Migration and Home Affairs (2015-2017). Nacira Boulehouat has worked in different assignments under the EU Common Foreign and Security policy, notably in relation to the Middle East and the European Neighbourhood for 10 years. She was deputy head of the Middle East at the European External Action Service, dealing with the Syria crisis and its regional ramifications from 2011 to 2015. Before that, she has worked on the enlargement policy at the time of negotiations for the accession of ten countries to the EU and was posted in the EU Delegation to Cyprus from 1998 to 2000.

Tiago Martins de Oliveira

Tiago M. Oliveira (Porto-1969) is an Expert in forest fire risk management and governance. His political and managerial experience is grounded on 25 years of operation and research activities as incident commander, aerial coordinator, hotshot crew or regular wildland firefighter. He holds a PhD in Forest Engineering and Natural Resources at University of Lisbon. Since January 2019, he is the Chairman of the Board of the Integrated Fire Management Agency (Portugal). Previously, upon nomination by the Portuguese Prime-Minister, he led the Installation of the Integrated Rural Fire Management System, in the aftermath of 2017 wildfires. Former Head of the Department of Innovation and Forestry Development (2016-2017) and Forest Protection (2008-2016) at The Navigator Company, where he covered fire prevention and suppression operational programs and R&D projects in the scope of MIT-Portugal programme. Assistant Lecturer at MedFor Master (2013-2017) and Executive Coordinator of the Technical proposal of the National Fire Plan (2005) and advisor for the XV and XVII Portuguese

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Governments. Besides several communications and papers he developed his personal and professional skills in strategy, planning, investment analysis, geographic information management, remote sensing, development, change management, operations management and project and communication.

Cathelijne Stoof

Cathelijne Stoof (PhD, Wageningen University, the Netherlands) is board member of the International Association of Wildland Fire, the national delegate of The Netherlands to the EU Expert Group of Forest Fires, and coordinator of the newly funded Innovative Training Network PyroLife, that will train 15 PhD candidates to become the our new generation of integrated fire management experts. PyroLife will foster knowledge transfer from southern Europe to temperate Europe, and from cross-risk approaches including water management to fire. It thereby combines how the North solves community problems with fire knowledge from the European South, with a strong focus on diversity in terms of interdisciplinarity, science-practice links, geography and gender. With this, PyroLife will train young people to understand fire, deal with uncertainty, communicate risks, and stimulate knowledge exchange to improve awareness and preparedness for current and future fire challenges.

Julia Rouet-Leduc

Julia Rouet-Leduc is a Doctoral Researcher at the German Centre for Integrative Biodiversity Research (iDiv) and has a background in Political Sciences from Sciences Po Paris and in Environmental Sciences and Sustainability from the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences (SLU). Her PhD takes an interdisciplinary approach to explore different types of grazing and the ecosystem services they provide, with a focus on wildfire prevention. Her project, GRAZELIFE, is coordinated by Rewilding Europe and part of an EU Life Preparatory Project.

Alessandra Zampieri

Alessandra Zampieri is the Head of the Disaster Risk Management Unit at the European Commission's Joint Research Centre. The mission of this Unit is to strengthen the EU’s resilience to crises and disasters and to help implement the EU’s aim to promote stability and peace through its research in crisis management technologies as well as in information mining and analysis. Ms Zampieri is also responsible for running the European Commission’s Knowledge Centre on Disaster Risk Management. Her career started in Brussels, where she joined the European Commission immediately after graduating in Economics, at the University of Genoa. She spent several years formulating transport policies, first in the competent Commission services and then in the Cabinet of Vice President De Palacio. In 2009 she joined the Joint Research Centre as Head of the Maritime Affairs Unit tasked with developing scientific and technological methodologies for EU policies related to the sea. Subsequently she was appointed Head

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of the Demography, Migration and Governance Unit where she run the Knowledge Centre on Migration and Demography (KCMD) that aims to provide EU migration policymakers with policy-relevant knowledge and evidence-based analysis.

Final remarks

Virginijus Sinkevičius

Virginijus Sinkevičius is the present Commissioner for the Environment, Oceans and Fisheries, at the European Commission. Mr Sinkevičius was from 2017 to 2019 Minister of Economy, and before was leading the Committee of Economy at the Parliament of Lithuania. Mr. Sinkevičius was elected to the Parliament in October 2016. Prior, he was a Team Lead for Regulatory Affairs at Invest Lithuania. Mr. Sinkevičius holds BA in International Relations and Affairs from Aberystwyth University and Master‘s degree in European International Affairs from Maastricht University.

https://ec.europa.eu/info/events/international-conference-forests-biodiversity-and-climate_en

[email protected]

https://ec.europa.eu/info/events/international-conference-forests-biodiversity-and-climate_en

mailto:[email protected]

International Conference on FORESTS FOR BIODIVERSITY …...a forester in southwest Germany. In 2015...

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Transcript of International Conference on FORESTS FOR BIODIVERSITY …...a forester in southwest Germany. In 2015...