Maggie Charnley

Maggie Charnley is the Head of the UK government’s International Forests Unit, directing a joint team in the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero (DESNZ) and the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO). Maggie’s team leads on international forest strategy with a particular focus on supporting the actions taken by tropical forest countries. This includes in relation to International Climate Finance, as well as forest carbon markets, the UNFCCC framework for forests (REDD+), innovative approaches to mobilising private finance, tackling deforestation in supply chains, and forest governance. Her team also leads on the follow up to the forest commitments made in Glasgow at COP26 in 2021. Maggie is the senior official for the UK’s interests in the Central African Forests Initiative (CAFI), of which the UK is currently chair.

Maggie has twenty years’ experience working in international environment policy, building on a degree in Environmental Sciences from the University of East Anglia. She took on leadership of the forests team in October 2020, having spent the previous 17 years in the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) covering a wide range of portfolios with an environment, land use and agriculture focus, both domestic and international.