MONDAY in SAGE HALL, ROOM 24

Bastiaan Louman obtained a MSc Degree from the University of Wageningen in the Netherlands, and is associate researcher at CATIE in Costa Rica. As such he is also regional coordinator for the IUFRO-SPDC program, oriented at strengthening the capacities of Latin American forest researchers. Currently he is studying the science-policy interface, a field that has gained increasing attention due to the low impact that forest policies have had in the American tropics. Before joining CATIE in July 2006 he worked two years in Peru where he was technical director for the USAID-financed WWF-CEDEFOR project, oriented towards supporting the new forest legislation and implementation of the concession process. During that period he was in charge of the activities that lead to the forest management certification of five small to medium-sized forest companies. In his over twenty years of experience in tropical forests he worked with many stakeholders, several of whom since have obtained forest certification, and as scientist and facilitator of meetings, he has been involved in FSC processes ever since he participated in the formulation of a first set of criteria and indicators for Papua New Guinea in 1992.