Gary Dunning
Executive Director, The Forest School; Executive Director, The Forests Dialogue
Gary is the Executive Director of The Forests Dialogue (TFD) and is directly responsible for the operation of TFD’s Secretariat. The Secretariat is hosted by Yale University at the School of the Environment in New Haven, Connecticut, USA. Prior to his current position, Gary ran several forestry programmes at Yale University including the Global Institute of Sustainable of Forestry and the Yale Forest Forum. He began his tenure at Yale 11 years ago as the National Coordinator for the Seventh American Forest Congress – the US’s largest and most complex stakeholder dialogue process to date. He also served as the United States Coordinator and Liaison to the World Commission on Forests and Sustainable Development and has served as a member on US delegations to UNFF and WSSD. Prior to coming to Yale Gary taught agroforestry and forest extension techniques at the Kenya Forestry College in Londiani, Kenya, and he worked briefly as a Community Forestry Research Assistant in Papua New Guinea. He holds a Masters of Forestry Degree from Yale University in International Forest Policy and a Bachelors Degree from Humboldt State University in forestry.
Background on The Forests Dialogue
The Forests Dialogue (TFD), formed in 1999, is an outgrowth of dialogues begun under the auspices of the World Business Council for Sustainable Development, The World Bank and The World Resources Institute. These dialogues converged to create TFD when leaders decided there needed to be an on-going, civil society driven, multi-stakeholder dialogue platform to address important global forestry issues. Its mission and purpose is to bring key leaders together to build relationships based on trust, commitment and understanding and generate substantive discussion on key issues related to achieving sustainable forest management around the world. TFD's dialogues offer a transparent forum to share aspirations and learning and to seek ways to take collaborative action on the highest priority forest conservation and management issues. TFD's Steering Committee, comprised of international forest and biodiversity leaders, oversee the governance of TFD and the planning and execution of its dialogues. There are 22 members of the TFD SC from the major stakeholder groups including private landowners, forest products industry, ENGOs, retailers, aid organizations, unions, and academia. TFD is developing and conducting international multi-stakeholder dialogues on the following issues:
- Forest Certification
- Illegal Logging and Forest Governance
- Intensive Forest Management
- Forests and Biodiversity Conservation
- Forests and Poverty Reduction
More information at www.theforestsdialogue.org or info@theforestsdialogue.org
Education
MF, Yale University, 1996