Ralph Schmidt

Ralph Schmidt has over 30 years of experience in international development and global environmental issues, specializing in forests. His work with forests has taken a very broad focus, involving all the global issues where forests are important such as biodiversity conservation, carbon sequestration and climate change, poverty reduction, indigenous people’s rights, gender equity, and international trade. With knowledge of tropical ecology and natural resource economics, he has specialized in policy for, and conservation and management of, tropical forests. He has also worked on temperate forest issues. He was a Peace Corps volunteer in rural Colombia, Chief of the Puerto Rico Forest Service, forest management officer at FAO in Rome, Director of Forest Programs for the UN Development Program, and CEO of Candlewood, an FSC certified forest company operating in northern Argentina. He has worked in about 50 countries in Latin America, Asia, Africa, Europe and North America and has lived abroad for fourteen years.