Forests & Peace Social Hour

Mar 2, 2021 | Forest Interest Group, Africa Interest Group, and the Young Professionals Interest Group of the Environmental Peacebuilding Association
online

The Forest Interest Group, Africa Interest Group, and the Young Professionals Interest Group of the Environmental Peacebuilding Association will be hosting a networking event for people – students, junior professionals, senior professionals, and otherwise – interested in the nexus between forests, conflict, and peace.  The event will be held using Remo, a platform specifically designed to facilitate networking and discussion, on Tuesday, March 2, from 9:30 - 11:00  EST. 

The event will have tables anchored by senior practitioners and researchers working on forest-related issues, and participants will have the opportunity to visit different tables, meet diverse people working in the field, learn more about their work and their organizations, and network.  

Table anchors include:

Maisharou Abdou – Director of the Great Green Wall Initiative, Niger. Maisharou Abdou is a Water and Forestry Engineer, with a Bachelor of Science Degree in Forest Resource Management, and a Master of Science Degree in Forest Resource Management: Forest Pathology and Entomology from the Federal University of Ibadan in Nigeria. He has climbed several positions in the Water and Forests Administration in Niger since 1996. First as Head of Forestry and Land Restoration, Head of Restoration and Reforestation Division, and Head of the National Forest Seed Center of Niger, before being appointed Deputy Coordinator, at the National Coordination Unit of the Long-Term Ecological Monitoring Observatory Network (ROSELT-Niger), a desertification observation and monitoring project of the Ministry of the Environment and Fight Against Desertification at a closing phase. A strategic study was carried out under his supervision to replace the project structure in the national structure named the National Center for Ecological and Environmental Monitoring. Mr. MAISHAROU had also coordinated several projects on the restoration of degraded lands and fight against desertification, but also for the valuation of non-timber forest products, which gave him consistent expertise in Sustainable land management and conservation and in the field of valuation of Non-Wood forest products, especially Gum Arabic. MAISHAROU Abdou is the General Director of the National Agency of the Great Green Wall Initiative in Niger since 2015 and he was decorated Commander of the Niger National Order of Merit since 2017.

Kidan Araya – Environmental Investigation Agency. Kidan Araya is an advocacy strategist for natural resource governance with over a decade of experience organizing in frontline communities and supporting environmental defenders across Africa and the United States. She currently serves as the West and Southern Africa Focal Point Campaigner at the Environmental Investigation Agency in Washington, D.C. where she crafts policy and partnership engagement strategies to combat illegal logging of forests occurring across Africa. Ms. Araya holds a Master of Arts in Geography from the University of Washington at Seattle, and a Bachelor of Arts in International Relations and Environmental Studies from Beloit College. She is a proficient French speaker and has conducted a variety of human rights centered research funded by private foundations and governmental agencies to analyze environmental and social policies in the United States, Cameroon, and Sweden.

Karol Boudreaux – Landesa. Karol Boudreaux is a lawyer who works to secure the land and resource rights of women, men and communities around the world. Much of her work over the past 20 years has been in Africa, more recently, she has worked in Asia supporting improvements to the legal and policy frameworks in China, India and Myanmar.  Much of her time is also devoted to strengthening the rights women hold to land and other property.

Amanda Bradley – Food and Agriculture Organization of the UN. Amanda supports countries to address tenure, gender, and indigenous peoples’ issues in the context of REDD+. Prior to her current work at FAO, Amanda lived in Cambodia where she worked for several NGOs supporting community-based natural resources management. Amanda is also engaged in supporting the development of forest carbon projects for the voluntary market through TerraCarbon, LLC. 

Alan Channer – Global EverGreening Alliance. Dr Alan Channer is a project director, documentary film producer, writer and researcher on peacebuilding and the environment. He was a runner-up for the 2019 Bremen International Peace Prize; co-designer of a programme on 'pastoralist-farmer conflict transformation' in Nigeria which won a United Nations Intercultural Innovation Award in 2017; speaker at the 2015 Nobel Peace Prize Forum; and producer of the award-winning film, The Imam and the Pastor, which premiered at the United Nations in 2006. Alan is a Senior Fellow of the Global EverGreening Alliance and on the Executive Committee of Initiatives for Land, Lives and Peace. He began his career in tropical agricultural biology, carrying out research in China, Malawi, Tuvalu and Zimbabwe. He has worked on trustbuilding programmes in Cambodia, Chad, Kenya, Nigeria and UK, with UNDP, the US Institute of Peace, Initiatives of Change and other agencies, and on land restoration with the World Agroforestry Centre in Nairobi.  He is co-director of the ''Summer Academy on Climate, Land and Security'' in Geneva.

Elaine Hsiao – Sheffield Institute for International Development. Elaine (Lan Yin) Hsiao is an interdisciplinary scholar specializing in environmental peacebuilding, transboundary conservation, and indigenous/community conservation and development. She is the Global Challenges Fellow at the Sheffield Institute for International Development, an Honorary Research Fellow at the University of Rwanda Center of Excellence in Biodiversity and Natural Resource Management, and Affiliate of the Biodiversity and Security research project. She bridges academia and practice in her leadership of the IUCN CEESP Theme on Environment and Peace, its Task Force on Migration, Environmental Change and Conflict, and as an Honorary Member of the ICCA Consortium. Elaine holds a PhD in Resource Management & Environmental Studies from the University of British Columbia and has founded various initiatives, co-produced a documentary film, and works with non-profit organizations worldwide.

Ousseyni Kalilou – Environmental Peacebuilding Association. Ousseyni Kalilou has worked as a partner scientist on the research project ‘Climate change and security in the UN Security Council’ at IFSH-Institute for Peace Research and Security Policy at the University of Hamburg. He contributed to UN Security Council research report no. 5 on the climate-security nexus (2020). He is the recipient of the 2019 Environmental Peacebuilding Award for the Best Student Research Paper. He has experience in both private and public sectors and is currently a co-chair in the Forest Interest Group at Environmental Peacebuilding Association. His works have focused on climate security and environmental peacebuilding in the Sahel region.

Nora Moraga-Lewy – Pulitzer Center for Crisis Reporting. Nora Moraga-Lewy is the Rainforest Journalism Fund manager at the Pulitzer Center. She is passionate about the role of journalists and activists in tropical resource conservation and human rights protection, especially in the context of social conflict and economic development. Previously, Nora was a Research Associate at the Environmental Law Institute (ELI), Fellow for the Kerry Initiative at Yale's Jackson School of Global Affairs, and Graduate Teaching Fellow at Yale. She holds a BA in Environmental Studies and Certificate in Energy Studies from Yale College and a MEM from the Yale School of Forestry & Environmental Studies.

Carolyn Z. Mutter – Columbia University, Earth Institute Center for Climate Systems Research @ NASA - GISS. Carolyn Mutter currently works on the AgMIP – the Agricultural Model Intercomparison and Improvement Project –  which is a research and stakeholder community of over 1000 persons motivated to better characterize and understand current and likely future agricultural and food systems - including in Sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia. Advancements include improved understanding of stresses on growth stages for specific species, as well as assessments of adaptation packages of interest to see if they are resilient and consistent with stakeholder aims.  As the International Program Manager, she contributes to strategic development, stakeholder engagement, partnerships, proposals, projects, and dissemination of results, including through regular Global Workshops.

Marco Piazza – Food and Agriculture Organization of the UN. Marco Piazza is a Forestry Officer, FAO – Regional Office for Asia and the Pacific (RAP) – National Forest Monitoring and REDD+ team. He has over fifteen years of experience with international organizations in the field of forestry and natural resource management on projects for international development. His core experience in the area of forest and land uses inventory and REDD+. He is currently supporting a project in Myanmar focused on national forest monitoring with conflict sensitive and human rights based approaches.

Ken Rosenbaum – Sylvan Environmental Consultants. Ken Rosenbaum is an attorney, policy consultant, and mediator. He has university degrees in biology, forest science, and law. He began his legal career at the Environmental Law Institute then served as an aide to a member of the US Congress. Since 1992, he has consulted around the world on improving environmental legislation and governance. Since 2003, he has also served as a mediator in US courts, and he applies those conflict resolution skills to stakeholder outreach and consensus building in his consulting.

Patrice Talla Takoukam– Food and Agriculture Organization of the UN. Dr. Patrice Talla Takoukam, a national of Cameroon, holds a Doctor of Philosophy in International Environmental Law and Public Law from the University of Limoges in France, Master's Degree and Diploma of Advanced Studies (DEA) in Public International Law from the University of Reims in France, and a Bachelor of Laws from the University of Yaoundé in Cameroon.  Dr. Talla started his career in 2000 as Research Associate and Post-Doctoral Fellow in the Department of Public International Law and International Organization at the Faculty of Law, University of Geneva in Switzerland. In 2001, he worked in parallel as Consultant at the United Nations Compensation Commission (UNCC), and for the international law firm "Lalive and Partners'" in Geneva. He joined FAO headquarters later in 2001 as Legal Officer (Associate Professional Officer) in the Law and Development Service of the Legal Office. In 2004, he transferred to the World Bank in Washington DC, United States, as Legal Officer/Counsel in the Environment and International Law Unit, Legal Department. He came back to FAO headquarters in 2010, where he served as Legal Officer in the Development Law Service, Legal Office. In 2013, he was appointed FAO Representative in Madagascar, and consequently also in Comoros, Mauritius and Seychelles, under the multiple-accreditation scheme. Since September 2020, he is Sub-Regional Coordinator for Southern Africa of the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO). His expertise covers Environmental Law, Forestry Law, Fisheries Law, and Land Tenure. 

Please register at https://forms.gle/5YBuBQzz1GP1mVoT7.  Space is limited. This page will be updated as new information is available.  If you have any questions, please contact us at association@environmentalpeacebuilding.org.