Towards Climate-Resilient and Biodiverse Productive Forests – A New Vision for Forestry

Mikhail Tarasov, IKEA

Mikhail Tarasov is the Global Head of Forestry at IKEA, where he drives the company’s Forest agenda and strategic wood direction. Together with IKEA’s business partners worldwide his organization works to create a positive impact within and beyond the company’s wood supply chain. Mikhail oversees strategic partnerships with over dozens of organizations including WWF, Kew Botanic Gardens and European Forest Institute to advance sustainability initiatives.
Previously, he led IKEA’s forestry and wood supply agenda across China and the Asia Pacific region. With more than 25 years of international experience in sustainable forest management, supply chains, and the forest industry, Mikhail also holds a PhD in Forest Ecology.

Richard Donovan

Richard Zell Donovan is an independent forest advisor based in Jericho, Vermont, with 50+ years of experience in forest conservation, rural development, certification, and restoration in 60+ countries in tropical, temperate, and boreal forests. He was a co-designer and founding member of the global Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) and the USA-focused Forest Stewards Guild, and is involved in forestry, climate-sensitive forestry and forest practices, restoration, and biomass energy. His focus has always been on innovation, including new approaches for managing forests, restoration, climate change, accountability, performance-based auditing of forestry and loggers, and community forest enterprises. He spent 27 years as senior VP and Chief of Forestry at Rainforest Alliance (RA). While at RA supervised the forest auditing program, conducting or supervising forest audits in over 50 countries in natural forests, plantations, and community forestry. This was preceded by 4 years on the Osa Peninsula, Costa Rica as director of the integrated tropical forest conservation and development BOSCOSA Project, 8 years as a natural resource specialist with international consulting firm Associates in Rural Development (ARD, Inc.), 3 years as a forestry consultant and professional tree feller, and 3 years as a Peace Corps volunteer in Paraguay. He speaks English and Spanish fluently, has functional Portuguese, and previously was fluent in Guarani.

Guillaume Dahringer, FSC France

Guillaume Dahringer is Technical Director at FSC France. After studying to be a forestry engineer, he supported community-based forest management programs in Mexico where he acquired a taste for multi-dimensional, long-term projects. He loves to bring together stakeholders with culturally and professionally diverse perceptions of the forest and foster dialogue on complex issues. He developed the first FSC forest management standard for mainland France (published in 2017), as well as the first FSC forest management standard for French Guiana (published in 2023), and coordinated the revision of the standard for mainland, leading to the publication of a second edition in 2025. Today, he oversees all activities linked to the development of certified forest areas and supply chains in France, both mainland and overseas

Peter Feilberg, Preferred by Nature

With over 29 years of professional experience, my mission as Executive Director at Preferred by Nature, is to drive sustainability and climate change initiatives across 100+ countries. My work reflects a deep commitment to fostering sustainable development practices that benefit people, nature, and the climate by using the market as a driver. At Preferred by Nature, we prioritize values that resonate with our organizational culture, aiming to infuse diverse perspectives into the global conversation on environmental stewardship.