CO-FOUNDER & CEO

Nigel is the former President of Rainforest Alliance and co-founder of many groundbreaking partnerships including Global Forest Watch, the Global Restoration Initiative, Preventing Pandemics at the Source, The Forests Dialogue, and the Asia Forests Partnership. He has advised many major companies on sustainability. He is an advisor to Dalberg Catalyst and previously served as Global Director of the Forests Program at the World Resources Institute. He was vice president for Asia-Pacific with Rare, where he helped launch their community-based fisheries efforts. In 2008, he served as lead advisor on climate change and energy in Asia to former US President Bill Clinton and the Clinton Global Initiative. He worked with the United Nations Environment Program in Nairobi and established The Nature Conservancy’s Asia-Pacific Forest Program. Nigel holds degrees in natural sciences and tropical forest ecology from the University of Cambridge and has lived and worked in Brazil, Kenya, Indonesia. He served on many boards and advisory groups and has received numerous awards including the Henry Arnold Conservation Fellowship and the United Nations Secretary General’s Big Data Challenge prize. He has been a frequent commentator on environment and development issues, including for the BBC, CNN, Al Jazeera, The Economist, The Guardian, and The New York Times.

CO-FOUNDER & CHIEF SCIENTIST

Eric is one of the world's most frequently cited conservation biologists. He developed the concepts and mapping of ecoregions and recently led the team that published the groundbreaking conservation imperative sites analysis. Eric is the founder and CEO of Nightjar, a leading company in transforming technology for conservation and serves as the Senior Expert in Biodiversity at RESOLVE. Previously, Eric served for almost 25 years as Chief Scientist at the World Wildlife Fund. Beginning in 1975, he conducted pioneering studies of tigers and their prey and led conservation programs for large mammals, such as the greater one-horned rhinoceros and Asiatic elephant. Eric helped create the conservation plans for many iconic places, including the Galapagos Islands, the Chihuahuan Desert, the Himalayas, the panda mountains of China, and the northern Great Plains of Montana. Eric led the integration of biodiversity information into the Global Forest Watch system as a partner to World Resources Institute. He co-led the first Global Tiger Summit in 2010 which helped chart the path to doubling the world’s tiger population. He has conservation experience in many countries and has published widely on large mammal conservation, including books on rhinos and tigers and also the acclaimed children’s book, What Elephants Know. He co-founded the Alliance for Zero Extinction.

CO-FOUNDER & LEAD ADVISOR

Eric is a renowned expert in environmental law and practice and co-leads the environmental, safety and health practices at O'Melveny, one of the world's largest law firms where he is a senior partner. He is recognized by Chambers USA, Best Lawyers in America, Super Lawyers, and International Who’s Who as a leading environmental lawyer. He represents business and financial institutions in a broad range of adversarial matters, including superfund proceedings, toxic tort claims, private cost recovery actions, and administrative proceedings. Drawing upon his experience as a graduate-degree environmental engineer, Eric also directs diligence and documentation of transactions, financings, and restructurings/reorganizations involving industrial and commercial properties. He also serves as lead counsel and court-appointed allocation counsel at National Priorities List superfund sites. Eric also co-leads the Firm’s, ESG task force group. He is a frequent speaker and author of numerous publications including current US and International Environmental Law summaries for the PLI Corporate Legal Counsel series and LexisNexis compliance guides. Eric has degrees from Harvard and from Northwestern University and has taught at Harvard, Fordham and Cornell. He also serves on the board of Rainforest Alliance.

ADVISOR

Gerardo is a Full-Time Researcher at the Institute of Ecology of UNAM, Mexico. He is recognized globally for his research on ecology and conservation and has fostered efforts to align scientific knowledge with society's crucial issues. He specializes in endangered species, protected natural areas, environmental planning, and the integration of conservation with development, and was instrumental in establishing Mexico's endangered species laws and creating over 20 protected natural areas spanning more than one and a half million hectares nationwide. His scientific output is remarkable, with over 500 scientific and outreach articles and 57 books published. Among recent honors, he was elected a foreign member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and received the BBVA Foundation Award for Nature Conservation. In April 2018, he was elected a member of the US National Academy of Sciences. Gerardo has also received the Distinguished Service Award from the Academy of the Society of Biological Conservation, the National Ecological Merit Award, a Guggenheim Fellowship, the Whitley Award for Nature Conservation, and the Special Distinction Environmental Merit Bicentennial from the Government of the State of Mexico. He is a member of The American Association for the Advancement of Science, serving as an editor for the journal Science.

ADVISOR

Sonila is CEO of Dalberg Catalyst, a global nonprofit that co-creates and accelerates systems solutions to pressing global challenges. In her role at Dalberg Catalyst, Sonila works on issues that cut across silos and require coordinated leadership from multiple types of actors. She spearheaded the creation of Preventing Pandemics at the Source, an initiative that brings together leading health and conservation actors to help address the root causes of pandemics. Sonila was previously a Partner at Dalberg Advisors, a strategic advisory firm. She joined Dalberg’s founding team in 2003 and played critical roles in the early growth of the Firm, including establishing the firm’s Environment Practice, and serving as the Director of the New York office. She has advised leading foundations, multilaterals, governments, companies, and nonprofits on strategies to enhance their impact on climate change, biodiversity loss, and other pressing global challenges.  Her clients have included the Rockefeller Foundation, Unilever, Swiss Re, New York City Government, UNDP, UN Global Compact, and WWF. Prior to joining Dalberg, Sonila worked for McKinsey & Company. She holds an MBA from Columbia University and an undergraduate degree in Economics from Harvard University. Sonila serves on the Board of the Rainforest Alliance.

ADVISOR

Lucita is the Group Sustainability Director at RGE and the Director of Sustainability and External Affairs at APRIL Group, a member of the RGE group of companies. Headquartered in Singapore, RGE is a global group of companies in resource-based manufacturing industries, operating in Indonesia, China, Brazil, Canada, Spain and Malaysia with over US$35 billion in assets and a workforce of over 80,000 people. Lucita is responsible for the advancement of APRIL's sustainability commitments and targets on biodiversity, climate, and shared prosperity, as well as stakeholder engagement and communications. She has global expertise in strategic and corporate communications and has led intercultural teams that provided communications counsel to senior management, strategized and executed campaigns and advocacy initiatives, organized stakeholder outreach on complex sustainability issues, and mobilized partners to provide support. She also served with the United Nations Environment Program in Nairobi, Kenya where she led strategy development, planning and execution of global communication programs and campaigns, focused on resource efficiency and sustainable consumption and production. Lucita is active with the World Economic Forum in the community of chief sustainability leaders and with the champions for nature senior advisors. Lucita is an unpaid, volunteer advisor to BioDiverse.

ADVISOR

Anup is a globally recognized specialist in the mapping of wildlife and conservation priority setting and is an author of some of the most important research in global conservation priority mapping. He co-designed the Terai Arc Landscape, a corridor connecting 14 protected areas in Nepal and India, which has facilitated movements of wildlife including tigers, rhinos and elephants and doubled the tiger population. In 1988, he initiated a community forest program with local people in the buffer zone of Chitwan National Park in Nepal. Its success has led to establishment of community forests across the lowlands of Nepal. He is Program Coordinator and Research Associate at the University of Minnesota for Conservation Sciences Graduate Program. Anup has deep expertise in forest carbon accounting and monitoring; large mammal conservation; habitat management and restoration through community participation; use of geographic information systems and remote sensing for landscape level planning and management; and training manpower to strengthen community-based conservation and forest carbon accounting. His current research is focused on identifying remaining natural habitats outside the current global protected area system for biodiversity conservation and carbon sequestration.

ADVISOR

David is a world-leading expert in forest ecology and resource management, conservation science, and biodiversity conservation. He currently runs five large-scale, long-term research programs in south-eastern Australia, developing ways to conserve biodiversity in farmland, wood production forests, plantations, and reserves. He has maintained some of the largest, long-term research programs in Australia, with some exceeding 42 years in duration. David has published more than 1442 scientific works, including 929 peer-reviewed papers in international scientific journals and 49 books, including many award-winning textbooks and other seminal books. He is among the world's most productive and most highly cited scientists, particularly in forest ecology and conservation biology with a total of 96,820. He is listed in the top 50 Australian scientists across all disciplines. The Australian newspaper listed him as the leading conservation and biodiversity expert in the nation. David held a prestigious Australian Research Council Laureate Fellowship, is a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Science, a Fellow of the Ecological Society of America, Fellow of the Royal Zoological Society, Fellow of the American Academy of Science, and was appointed an Officer of the Order of Australia in 2014. His research has been recognized through numerous awards, including three Eureka Science Prizes, 10 Whitley Award, the Serventy Medal for Ornithology, and the Australian Natural History Medallion. In 2018, he was awarded the prestigious Whittaker Medal from the Ecological Society of America. In 2022 he was elected a Fellow of the New South Wales Royal Zoological Society.

ADVISOR

Ara is a biodiversity specialist with a focus on the ecology and conservation of African mammals and birds. He specializes in field-based studies where the objectives are either to obtain biological and taxonomic insights on rare and threatened species, or to understand the ecological roles and ecosystem functions provided by these species in natural and agricultural landscapes. Over the past 30 years, he has worked in remote locations across the African continent including the rain forests of tropical Africa, and the savannas of Southern and East Africa, including Madagascar. He also maintains long-term ecological field sites in Eswatini. Ara has published widely including eight books and more than 200 peer-reviewed papers. He has been based at the University of Eswatini for 30 years teaching more than a dozen courses. Ara has also directly contributed to Government of Eswatini initiatives to conserve biodiversity by participating in the National Biodiversity Strategy and Action Plan, as well as its revision. He works closely with the Eswatini National Trust Commission conducting applied research on their protected areas, for example by doing intensive baseline biodiversity surveys. He was the first chairperson of the Kingdom of Eswatini Academy of Science. Ara is a Courtesy Faculty at the University of Florida, USA, and a Research Fellow at the Mammal Research Institute, University of Pretoria, South Africa.

ADVISOR

Reed is Lead Scientist for the University of Florida’s Center for Landscape Conservation Planning and Chief Science Advisor for the Southeastern Grasslands Institute. He is a Courtesy Professor at University of Florida (Department of Wildlife Ecology and Conservation) and University of Central Florida (Department of Biology). He was formerly Provost’s Distinguished Research Professor and Davis-Shine Endowed Professor of Conservation Biology at the University of Central Florida. He is considered one of the founders of modern conservation biology. Reed served as Editor-in-Chief of Conservation Biology, Science Editor for Wild Earth magazine, and President of the Society for Conservation Biology. He is an Elected Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. He was a Governor-appointed member to the State of Florida’s Acquisition and Restoration Council and the Vice Chair of the Adaptation for Climate-Sensitive Ecosystems and Resources Advisory Committee of the U.S. Climate Change Science Program. He has published over 360 scientific articles, book chapters, and major reports and eight books and has been recognized as one of the 500 most highly cited authors in all fields worldwide. Reed has degrees from the University of Dayton, University of Tennessee and a Ph.D. in wildlife ecology from University of Florida. Reed has testified to the US Congress three times and has received many awards.

ADVISOR

Carlos is Professor of Tropical Conservation Ecology at the School of Environmental Sciences, University of East Anglia (UK) and the Science Director of a thriving non-profit conservation NGO in the Amazon (Instituto Juruá), which he co-founded and co-directs. For the last 40 years he has been studying wildlife community ecology in Amazonian forests; the population ecology of key neotropical forest resource populations; the biological criteria for designing nature reserves; community-based integrated conservation-development solutions that are scalable; and biodiversity responses to land-use change. He co-directs four ecology and conservation research programs in Amazonia and has published over 490 papers on Neotropical forest ecology and is the most cited Latin American conservation ecologist of all times. He has worked in over 160 forest sites in six of the eight Amazonian countries and has supervised the postgraduate work of over 140 students from 22 countries of South America, Africa, South-East Asia, Europe and North America. Carlos was born in the Brazilian Amazon city of Belém, Pará, and has won many prestigious awards including Environmentalist Leader for the New Millennium by Time Magazine and CNN.

ADVISOR

Raina is the Rudolf J. and Katharine L. Steffen Professor at Cornell University where she also serves as a Cornell Atkinson Scholar at the Cornell Atkinson Center for Sustainability. Her research aims to unravel the biological mechanisms of viral spillover events to inform disease prevention strategies. She leads large transdisciplinary collaborations on emerging disease biology with a focus on WHO-priority pathogens originating in bats, including field efforts in Australia, Bangladesh, and Ghana. Raina sits on the National Science Foundation Advisory Committee for Environmental Research and Education, and the US National Academies of Science, Engineering, and Medicine committee for Countering Zoonotic Spillover of High Consequence Pathogens. She is the co-chair of the Lancet-PPATS Commission on Prevention of Viral Spillover. She was recently elected to the National Academy of Medicine and the American Association for the Advancement of Science for transdisciplinary leadership in the field of emerging disease biology. Raina has won many awards and received degrees from the University of Sydney and from the University of California, Davis. She has contributed to over 130 publications and her research has been featured extensively in the popular media, including in the New York Times, Scientific American, The Washington Post, The Economist, Le Monde, National Public Radio, Newsweek, Reuters, ProPublica, and Rolling Stone.

ADVISOR

Sam is the lead Wildlife Statistician within the Global Conservation Program of the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS), a US-based NGO, working with colleagues around the world. She plays a central role in the design of effective monitoring programs and the optimal application of continually evolving techniques for wildlife surveys supported by appropriate conservation technology. She has published over 65 papers in major journals and book chapters on key topics including distance sampling, a diverse set of wildlife species, wildlife population assessment, survey techniques, and evidence-based conservation. Her statistical analyses have inspired major conservation campaigns, including for African elephants, and they inform conservation management and policy at multiple scales ranging from strategic conservation planning within landscapes larger than small countries to assessments that support the IUCN Red List of species and decisions made at CITES. She also develops analytical and decision-support software, including to streamline cetacean abundance estimation for the International Whaling Commission. Sam is skilled at capacity development and supporting the next generation of conservation scientists. She holds a Ph.D. in Statistics focused on Wildlife Population Assessment from the University of St Andrews and undergraduate degrees in Computer Science and Applied Mathematics from the University of Cape Town. She is a member of the Committee of Scientific Advisors on Marine Mammals with the Marine Mammal Commission.

ADVISOR

Eric is a conservation biologist with over 30 years of experience throughout Asia and beyond. He was a Senior Conservation Scientist with WWF US for over two decades, Director of Wildlife, Wetlands, and Sustainable Financing with WWF Hong Kong, and Senior Rewilding Specialist with NEOM giga-project in Saudi Arabia. His is an expert in landscape-scale spatial planning for conservation, especially of endangered large mammals and wide-ranging species and ecosystem processes, and ecosystem-based approaches to reducing climate change vulnerabilities. Eric is the lead author on a conservation assessment of the Indo-Pacific, important reports on the Himalayas, and was one of the lead investigators of the seminal range-wide tiger conservation assessment in 1997 that contributed to a paradigm shift in large mammal conservation in Asia. He has extensive field experience and familiarity in Bhutan, Cambodia, China, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Lao PDR, Nepal, Malaysia, Myanmar, Saudi Arabia, Sri Lanka, Thailand, and Vietnam, with deep expertise of conservation issues in other parts of Asia and the Pacific. Eric received his Ph.D. from University of California, Davis, and was a Postdoctoral Fellow with the Smithsonian Institution. He has published extensively on a wide range of topics.