Speakers 11.9.2024

Gert-Jan Nabuurs is Professor of European forest resources at Wageningen University and Research, WUR. His background is in European scale forest resource analyses, and management under climate change with both scientific aspects as well as outreach to the forest sector. He started the work with the EFISCEN model, the European forest resource, forest management and carbon balance model. Applications are in wood availability, effects of forest management, biodiversity restoration, climate change impacts and CO2 sequestration. Further he was Coordinating Lead Author of the Agriculture and Forestry chapter in the IPCC 6AR. He was Assistant Director of the European Forest Institute in Finland from 2009-2012. He launched the climate smart forestry idea at COP21 in Paris. Recently the climate smart forestry network for the EU was launched.

Stefanie Linser is a Senior Scientist at BOKU, Vienna. She is a recognised expert on indicators for SFM and related data. She has compiled data and provided input and indicator expertise to national and international organisations. Since many years she coordinates the IUFRO Working Party 9.01.05 on Research and Development of Indicators for SFM and is deputy leader of the UNECE/FAO Team of Specialists on Monitoring of SFM. She was coordinating lead-author of the State of Europe’s Forests 2020 report and is in in the steering committee for the further development of the FAO Global Core set of forest-related indicators.

Sophus zu Ermgassen is an ecological economist based at Oxford University’s Nature-positive Hub, specialising in biodiversity market-based instruments, infrastructure sustainability, biodiversity finance, biodiversity offsetting and ecological economics. He holds three ongoing expert advisory roles for the UK government: on Natural England’s Biodiversity Net Gain Monitoring and Evaluation expert advisory group; the UK Treasury’s Biodiversity Economics working group; and the International Advisory Panel on Biodiversity Credits. He was an expert contributor to the UK Environmental Audit Committee report on Biodiversity and Ecosystems, and frequently contributes to policy reports by the Parliamentary Office for Science and Technology. He is co-host of the European Society for Ecological Economics podcast “Economics for Rebels”, in 2022 he was listed as one of the 100 most influential environmental professionals in the UK by newspaper the ENDS Report, and in 2023 was awarded the most impactful early career environmental scientist in the UK by the Natural Environment Research Council.

Yoan Paillet is a researcher in ecology at the French National Research Institute for Agriculture, Food and Environment (INRAE). He is specialized on the links between biodiversity and forest management, with a special focus on structural features favorable to biodiversity. His research focus mainly on retention measures from large scale initiatives (strict forest reserves) to tree-scale tools (tree-related microhabitats). In particular, he works with natural area managers for acquisition, management and analysis for better monitoring of species at stake.

Davide Pettenella has more than 40 years of experience as a researcher and teacher in forest economics and policy.  His professional focus is on the economics of forest products and services, with a particular interest in the new markets for forest services and the related ESG and ethical aspects in the regulation of the forest sector and the creation of new responsible markets.

Helga Pülzl is Assistant Director for Policy Support of the European Forest Institute and responsible for the Policy Support Facility and its Trust Fund. Her main research interests are in European and international forest governance and policy change, bioeconomy perceptions and sustainability indicators development. She coordinates the IUFRO Working Party 9.05.01 on bioeconomy policy and holds a Phd and master’s degree in political science from the University of Vienna.