Rene Zamora Cristales

René Zamora-Cristales is Guatemalan, Director of Initiative 20x20 Secretariat and Restoration Policy at the World Resources Institute (WRI). Initiative 20x20 is the Latin American country-led effort to restore 50 million hectares of degraded lands by 2030 in support to the UN Decade in Ecosystem Restoration.  Rene also serves as Courtesy Faculty in the College of Forestry at Oregon State University.

Rene has a Doctoral degree (PhD.) in Forest Engineering from Oregon State University, USA; a Master of Science degree in Economics and Wood Science from Austral University from Chile and a Baccalaureatus in Scientiis in Forest Engineering from Del Valle University in Guatemala. 

In 2019 Rene received the recognition of "Outstanding Doctoral Research Award" from IUFRO. René's work is reflected in more than 30 publications in scientific journals on topics related to economics, private investments, forest operations, landscape monitoring and mathematical optimization methods for natural resources.