From Myth to Reality, the Forest as a decent workplace!

Coen Van Der Veer, BWI

Coen started of his professional career as a biochemical analyst, working on the development of pregnancy tests and at quality assurance of the heparin production. In 1993 he was elected Secretary-Treasurer of the youth union, where his professional career in the trade union movement started. After several functions in a range of sectors, he was appointed as national negotiator for the wood sector in the Netherlands, and as representative to the European and Global federations for the same sector. From 2012 to 2014 he was seconded by the Dutch union to the Building and Wood Workers’ International (BWI) in Geneva as Global Coordinator for the Wood and Forestry sector. In FSC he was active as the chair of the Standard & Policy Committee.  After a brief intermission in the Netherlands as Secretary-Treasurer for the newly merged FNV, a union with 1 million members covering all sectors in the Netherlands, he resigned in April 2019 to become the Global Director for Wood and Forestry for BWI and the representative to FSC International.  

Ivone Namikawa, Klabin

Ivone Namikawa is member of the FSC AC Board of Directors. She works in Forest Sustainability at Klabin SA in Brazil. She plays a leading role in the company’s local, regional and global engagement with non-governmental organizations and sector associations, and represents Klabin also in TFD (The Forest Dialogue) and IBA (Brazilian Tree Industry). Previously, she worked for Klabin as Tree Breeding Specialist and as Forest Research and Environment Coordinator. She holds a BSc in Forestry from Sao Paulo University (ES-ALQ-USP) and an MSc in Forestry from the Federal University of Paraná.