Plenary Session on Forest Management Certification: Shaping our roots
As FSC celebrates 30 years of advancing responsible forest management, this plenary brings together reflection, urgency, and a collective call to action. Through keynotes, a vision-setting presentation, and a dynamic panel discussion, participants will revisit FSC’s history of credibility and innovation, examine the challenges facing today’s standards, and explore pathways to a climate-responsive, user and impact centered future.
The session includes reflections on FSC’s achievements and the evolution of its Principles & Criteria, making the case for change, and a panel of diverse voices from across the FSC community. We will explore: How can we balance stability with transformation? What would outcome-oriented standards look like in practice? How do we embed climate action, clarity, and usability into the next chapter of FSC?
Subhra Bhattacharjee, Director General, FSC
With over 20 years of experience in sustainable development, Subhra has worked at the intersection of public policy, economics, and social justice, advancing solutions for poverty, climate change and sustainable development. She now serves as the Director General of FSC International, where she leads global efforts to promote responsible forest management and sustainable supply chains. In her diverse roles in central banking, academia, and the United Nations, she has developed a deep understanding of the synergies between economic growth, environmental stewardship, and social equity. She has seen first-hand that change is best affected by empowering a diverse group of changemakers, by strengthening the capacity of governments, and enabling communities take the lead on decisions that affect their lives.
Joanna Nowakowska, FSC
Joanna is a forester with extensive experience in forestry, standard setting and leadership. She persistently drives change and efficiency standing up for FSC values.
She holds PhD degree in forestry and completed post-graduate studies in GIS. She has received many educational rewards over the time of her education and enjoys deep dive in the subject matter topics. She was working in field and office forest management before joining FSC, including implementing GIS solutions at the level of forest management units. Before joining FSC International she was working for an FSC National office, leading on forest management and controlled wood aspects.
After joining the team in Bonn in 2013, she was leading many standard setting processes and FSC’s strategy for mass-balance (FSC Mix, Controlled Wood), while managing multicultural team. In the years following the finalization of the CW strategy she was building the data and analytics team, including the introduction of innovative tools and monitoring and evaluation. She brought the technology and innovation experience back to standard setting when appointed to co-lead the current Policy and Performance Unit, stepping in the Unit Director role few years later.
Kevin Jones
Kevin serves as PSC Economic North representative. Having qualified with a BSc Hons Degree in Ecological Science (Edinburgh University) and MSc Forestry (Oxford University) he went on to qualify as a Chartered Forester with the UK Institute of Chartered Foresters. He then worked as a forest manager in a variety of contexts including community forestry in Africa, management of historic landscapes, nature conservation forests, and commercial forest management. He carried out his first FSC forest audit in 1995 for FSC accredited certification body Soil Association Certification Ltd and eventually became the Director of their global forest certification programme before retiring from that role in 2022. Kevin has carried out forest and chain of custody audits in over 60 countries from all regions in the world, written forest management standards and quality management systems to comply with FSC and ISO accreditation requirements, and actively contributed to FSC policy development.
Maureen Kamau
Maureen is a first-year doctoral student at the University of Eastern Finland with a background in forestry and hands-on experience in natural resources management. Her master's thesis analysed climate adaptation strategies in boreal forest management based on FSC standards. Building on this, her PhD studies examine climate resilience in community-managed forests in the Global South and assess the impact of certification on carbon stocks. Maureen advances inclusive, science-informed approaches to forest policy and governance.
Rod Taylor
Rod is the Global Director of Forests and Nature Conservation at the World Resource Institute (WRI), with oversight of Global Forest Watch, Nature Resources Governance and Policy and work on responsible supply chains. Before joining WRI, Rod worked as the Forests Director at WWF International, and before that led WWF’s forest work in the Asia Pacific region. Earlier in his career, Rod worked as a forest policy adviser in Indonesia, Papua New Guinea and the Solomon Islands. Rod began his career as a lawyer in Australia and has a Masters Degree in Environmental Law from the Australian National University.
Glenda Amarilis Lee Pinto
Twenty three years of experience as an Engineer in Natural Renewable Resources, graduated from the Agronomy Faculty from the San Carlos de Guatemala University, Guatemala. Glenda, has a specialization in forest certification and carbon markets. Glenda has expertise as an advisor to several companies in Guatemala to ensure compliance with the requirements of principles, criteria and indicators of sustainable forest management standards, FSC®, both at small and large producers level in rubber forests, as well as forest management and timber and paper industry.
Stefan Salvador, FSC
Stefan is a forester by education with extensive experience in standard setting, leadership and quality assurance.
Stefan holds an M.Sc. Degree in Forestry Sciences and started his engagement in 1998 as Director of FSC Germany. Following some intermediate contributions, Stefan finally joined FSC International in 2006 as Policy Manager, overseeing the development of and drafting the second version of the chain of custody standard. From 2009 onwards, Stefan coordinated the development of a strategic framework for FSC’s engagement in climate change. From 2011, Stefan was leading the new Ecosystem Services Programme, with its flagship project “ForCES – Forest Certification for Ecosystem Services”. In 2013, he became director of the newly established Quality Assurance Unit. Stefan joined the policy unit again in 2017 as Director Policy Operations. In 2025, he took a more prominent role in technical document reviews and approvals in his new role as Policy Director the re-organized Policy and Performance Unit.
Event Details
- Monday, 27 October
Time: 14:30 - 16:00 (EST - Panama) / 20:30 - 22:00 (CET) / 03:30 - 05:00 (WITA)