event session: Mid plenary

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  • Eduardo Somarriba

Eduardo Somarriba
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Eduardo Somarriba has a BS in biology and natural resources, a master’s degree in tropical forest ecology, and a PhD in agroecology (biology) from the University of Michigan. He has been an active researcher, educator and advisor/consultant in agroforestry to various governments and private companies over the last 34 years. He is currently head of the program on Agriculture, Livestock and Agroforestry at CATIE, and the focal point for FTA at CATIE. Eduardo’s current field of research is focused on the optimal management of trees on farms, multistrata agroforestry systems with coffee and cacao, and the production of timber on farms. He has provided technical advice to governments, development projects and NGOs in Latin America, led various science-based development cocoa projects in Bolivia and in Central America, and published nearly 300 publications, including scientific articles, technical manuals, books and educational materials for university students and farmers.

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  • Fergus Sinclair

Fergus Sinclair
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Fergus Sinclair leads ICRAF’s research into the contribution that trees can make to the productivity of farming systems. Fergus is well known for pioneering the development of knowledge-based system methods for acquisition and use of local agro-ecological knowledge; for using participatory modelling to better harness natural resources at the community level; and for exploring tradeoffs between the impact of farm trees on productivity and biodiversity. He has also combined these interests by contributing to the development of interdisciplinary GIS tools for spatially explicit evaluation of ecosystem service synergies and tradeoffs at landscape scales (Polyscape). He is seconded to ICRAF for 50 percent of his time from Bangor University, Wales, the UK, where he serves as director of the Centre for Advanced Research in International Agricultural Development (CARIAD). He is also a visiting professor at CATIE.

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  • Christopher Kettle

Christopher Kettle
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Christopher Kettle PhD is an ecologist and geneticist. He has 20 years of research experience working in tropical forest landscapes and restoration. He believes that forest bioversity, especially the diversity of trees, offers a critical and underutilized nature-based solution for multiple sustainable development goals, including climate change mitigation, resilient landscape restoration and sustainable food systems. Since August 2017, Christopher has led Bioversity International’s cross-cutting interdisciplinary research team working on the conservation and sustainable use of socioeconomically and ecologically important trees and their genetic diversity. He leads research programs across Southeast Asia, Latin America and Africa and the safeguarding forest genetic resources cluster of FTA. He holds a joint appointment and is also group leader in the Department of Environmental System Science, ETH Zurich, Switzerland, and an associate scientist in the department of plant science at the University of Oxford, UK. Prior to joining Bioversity International, Christopher was a senior lecturer at ETH Zurich (2007 – present), and supervised over 10 PhD students mostly on topics that inform the conservation and sustainable management of tropical forests. He taught tropical rainforest ecology and led an MSc on resilience of ecological systems. He has a PhD from the University of Edinburgh, UK.

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Bas Louman
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Bas Louman is program coordinator at Tropenbos International (TBI), coordinating the CGIAR Forests Trees and Agroforestry program on Innovative finance for sustainable landscapes. He is focusing now on finance mechanisms that supports sustainability and climate actions in landscapes in Indonesia, Vietnam and Ghana, and supporting TBIs work in DRC, Surinam, Bolivia and Colombia.

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  • Jennifer Pryce

Jennifer Pryce
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Jenn Pryce is President and CEO of Calvert Impact Capital. For nearly a quarter of a century, Calvert Impact
Capital has strived to make markets work for more people, more often, by investing in communities
overlooked by traditional finance. Calvert Impact Capital invests through organizations that on-lend to
people and businesses in the US and over 120 countries. In 2017 the organizations in their portfolio
provided more than $5 billion to finance everything from solar panels in Tanzania and small businesses in
Texas.

Over the past decade, Jenn has shaped the strategic direction of Calvert Impact Capital to focus on
innovation, sustainability and scale. Under her leadership the organization has expanded the sectors it
works in, developed new products and services, and committed to sharing their knowledge and expertise
with the field on key topics like gender lens investing. Calvert Impact Capital remains committed to
ensuring impact investing is accessible to all investors, large and small, having worked with more than
17,000 individuals, institutions and advisors to raise $2.5 billion since their founding.

Jenn began her career in the Peace Corps where she taught math in Gabon. She then worked as an equity
research analyst for Neuberger Berman and on the investment banking team at Morgan Stanley’s London
office before joining The Public Theater in New York City and leading the Washington DC regional office for
the Nonprofit Finance Fund. Jenn studied engineering at Union College and holds an MBA from Columbia
University. She currently serves as a Forbes contributor, a lecturer at Oxford Saïd School of Business and
the Advisory Board Chair of Quantified Ventures.

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  • Dolors Armenteras

Dolors Armenteras
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