Task Force members

Task Force Members

Coordinator

Associate Professor Gun Lidestav, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences (Sweden), is a forest resource management scientist with a vast research knowledge on family and community forestry. As TF coordinator, she will bring her long term experience of coordination and research on gender and gender equality initiatives in a forestry context. In 2000 she initiated the IUFRO units on Gender and Forestry and has since then been engaged at various positions of the IUFRO network.  E-mail: gun.lidestav(at)slu.se

Deputy Coordinators

Dr. Elias Andersson, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, (Sweden) is a work and gender scientist who is conducting research on the wide spectrum of social aspects of natural resource management. Dr. Andersson brings to the Task Force an extensive research record on forestry, forest ownership and gender, mainly from a Nordic perspective, as well as a theoretical knowledge of gender and critical theory. This knowledge will inform the organizational and strategic aspects of the proposed gender mapping exercise of the IUFRO network and its structures. E-mail: elias.andersson(at)slu.se

Dr. Kalpana Giri from Nepal is now working for the Center for People and Forests - in short, RECOFTC (www.recoftc.org) based in Bangkok, Thailand where she promote gender and social equity into RECOFTC's forest programming and operations- through policies and projects in Nepal, Thailand, Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia, Myanmar, and Indonesia. E-mail: kalpana.giri(at)recoftc.org

Dr. Alice Ludvig, University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences (BOKU), Austria, is a political scientist and senior researcher dealing with topics such as forest ownership, non-timber forest products and social innovation in forestry from both empirical and theoretical perspectives.  She brings in transdisciplinary perspectives from both social science as well as philosophy and semiotics to the TF. In addition to her Doctoral studies in Political Science she holds a degree in Social and Cultural Anthropology and the EU Master's Degree in Human Rights. E-mail: alice.ludvig(at)boku.ac.at

Members

Dr. Abwoli Yabezi Banana is a Professor of Forestry in the School of Forestry, Environmental and Geographical Sciences, Makerere University, Uganda. Together with Scientists from the Center for  International Forest Research (CIFOR), Prof. Banana has been working on initiatives aimed at addressing the gender gap in participation and representation in community forestry in Uganda. Gender inequality in most developing countries is entrenched in the cultural norms. E-mail: abwoli.banan@gmail.com

Dr. Todora Rogelja hold a Ph.D. in forest governance and work as a researcher at the University of Padova (Italy) with a focus on topics of social innovation, actors, capacities, and sustainable resource management. She will support the TF by bringing her experience in tutoring and curating content in Massive Open Online Courses (MOOC) on social innovation.  E-mail: todora.rogelja@unipd.it.

Dr. Raquel A. Leao is currently the Coordinator of the Brazilian National Forest Inventory, where she's been working since 2013.  With a bachelor's and a master's degree in Forestry, she has field experience in forest inventories and has worked as a lecturer at the University of Brasília. Her main interests are national forest inventories, socio-economic surveys as well as social and gender issues in forestry. E-mail: raquelaleao@gmail.com

MSc Barbara Öllerer is a doctoral student at the University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences (BOKU Vienna), Austria. She is also a young professional with experience in the fields of gender and forestry and forest-based care at the Austrian Research Centre for Forests, where she has organised an international conference and co-coordinated a mentoring programme addressed to women in forestry. She holds the position of Head of Gender Sub-Commission at the International Forestry Students’ Association (IFSA) and contributes to the TF by sharing her perspective as a forestry student and young professional. E-mail: barbara.oellerer@boku.ac.at

Professor Maureen Reed, School of Environment and Sustainability, University of Saskatchewan. Canada, has pioneered research on gender and forestry in the global north and is working with Indigenous and non-Indigenous partners to develop governance innovations that support the mutual desire to advance biological and cultural sustainability. Presently a member of a Canadian Task Force that is developing a National Action Plan for Gender Equity in Canadian Forestry. E-mail: maureen.reed(at)usask.ca

Professor Teppo Hujala, University of Eastern Finland, has vast research experience on family forest owners, including gender aspects and female forest ownership. His expertise areas contain forest planning, decision support methods, service research, and assessment of policy instruments and new business models for sustainable forest-based bioeconomy.  He will serve the TF in advisory role with matters relating to policies, businesses and services in forestry, especially in connection with Small-scale Forestry research (IUFRO 3.08.00).  E-mail: teppo.hujala(at)uef.fi

Dr. Peter Edwards, is Senior Researcher in Social & Political Science, Manaaki Whenua Landcare Research, New Zealand, and Deputy Coordinator 9.05.01. Dr. Edwards works primarily across domestic and trans-national forest policy and governance, but has significant interest in gender issues in forestry and has extensive networks in government, industry and academia in New Zealand, Australia and in Europe to draw on. E-mail: EdwardsP(at)landcareresearch.co.nz

Professor Ola Lindroos, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences is an expert on forest operations and vice dean of under-graduate and graduate forestry education at SLU. With this experience and network he will bring in valuable perspectives to the advisory role in Task Force that he has accepted. E-mail: ola.lindroos(at)slu.se

Associate Professor Jonas Rönnberg, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences,  is responsible for the Nordic collaboration on forest research under the Nordic Council of Ministers and runs a number of gender projects. He has been serving as acting Vice Dean for SLU's Faculty of Forest Sciences with responsibility for equality. Presently he is heading the SLU organizing committee for IUFRO 2024 and is also WP leader for 7.02.01. E-mail: jonas.ronnberg(at)slu.se

Dr. Carol Colfer is a Senior Associate with CIFOR  and a Visiting Fellow at CIIFAD at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York. She has 45 years of ethnographic experience in the Middle East, Southeast Asia, and the United States; and global, forest-related experience in criteria and indicators, adaptive collaborative management and governance, and has accepted an advisory role in the TF. E-mail: c.colfer(at)cgiar.org

Dr. Marlene Elias, is a geographer and Gender Research Coordinator for the CGIAR Research Program on Forests, Trees and Agroforestry. Her research focuses on gendered dimensions of forest management and restoration, local ecological knowledge(s), and forest/agri-food value chains, predominantly in West Africa and South and Central Asia. She has accepted an advisory role in the Task Force. E-mail: marlene.elias(at)cgiar.org

Dr. Huicui Lu, is an associate professor at Faculty of Forestry, Qingdao Agricultural University, China . As an early-career forestry scientist in silviculture and with her extensive network through research collaboration in Netherlands, Spain and Switzerland, she will in particular bring the young researchers perspectives to the TF work.  E-mail: huicui.lu(at)qau.edu.cn

Dr. Eric Hansen, Oregon State University, USA, has in his research spanned forest products marketing, corporate social responsibility, innovation management, and most recently gender diversity issues in the forest products manufacturing sector. His combined expertise in these fields will provide a vital contribution to the TF work.  E-mail: eric.hansen(at)oregonstate.edu.

Professor Pil Sun Park, is professor in silviculture and forest ecology at the Department of Forest Sciences, Seoul National University, Korea and an expert in regeneration and forest stand dynamics and has a broad experience on montane forests in temperate region and natural forests in SE Asian countries. E-mail: pspark(at)snu.ac.kr

M.A. Kelly Cooper, will join the TF team as non-academic expert on gender gap audit assessments, gender strategies and national sector gender action plans. Over her 25-year career, Ms. Cooper has worked in Asia, Africa, Latin America, and Europe on various sustainable development projects and helping leaders create a gender transformation within their organizations. Email: kelly.cooper(at)CentreforSocialIntelligence.ca

Dr. Arbia Labidi, consultant currently working for FAO in support for microenterprise creation in Tunisian forest area.  E-mail: Arbia.Labidi(at)fao.org.

Associate Professor Stephen Wyatt, at Université de Moncton (Canada) will from his long term experience of working with indigenous communities in will bring expertise on gender and NRM coupled with indigenous rights. E-mail: stephen.wyatt(at)umoncton.ca

Dr. Ana Euler work as researcher at Embrapa Amapá (Brazil) in the area of ​​natural resource management and international relations. Her research and extension projects are focused on community forest management, rural development, agroextractivism, ethnobotany, socioeconomics, sociobiodiversity value chains and services ecosystems. E-mail: ana.euler@empraba.br.

Dr.  Rachel Leao (Brazil) will provide expertise in socio-economic surveys.

Professor Wasiul Islam (Bangladesh) have expertise in governance/management of protected areas and roles of women in forestry. E-mail: wislam(at)fwt.ku.ac.bd

Juliet Achieng is a Junior Researcher at the European Forest Institute and the Deputy Coordinator of the Joint International Union of Forest Research Organizations and International Forestry Students’ Association (IUFRO-IFSA) Taskforce on Forest Education. Her research focusses on forest sector employment and education and has vast experience in working with students which will be beneficial to the taskforce. E-mail: juliet.achieng(at)efi.int

Dr. Yashmita Ulman works as Assistant Professor at the Narendra Deva University of Agriculture & Technology (India) with issues related to agroforestry systems and its role in biodiversity conservation. In this respect, her experience of the role of gender in agroforestry systems in different parts of India is of great value for Task Force.  E-mail: yashmita2018(at)gmail.com

Professor Seema Arora-Jonsson, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences works with questions of forestry, gender, development and environmental governance both in the global North and South. She has been coordinator of the Gender and Research unit in the past and has represented IUFRO at the Global Landscape Forums and other venues. E-mail: Seema.Arora.Jonsson(at)slu.se

Dr. Ida Wallin is a researcher, lecturer and project coordinator at the Department for Urban and Rural Development, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences and the Coordinator of 9.01.07. Dr. Wallin researches about participatory forest governance and media debates, and has a special interest in gender issues related to forestry and education. To the Task Force she brings network contacts and experiences with creating massive online courses that could be employed for spreading the results of the task force. E-mail: ida.wallin(at)slu.se

Dr. Pipiet Larasatie is Assistant Professor of Forest Products Marketing, University of Arkansas at Monticello. She is also the founder of #WomenInWoodScience, creating a virtual community to showcase women who are studying/researching wood science. E-mail: Larasatie(at)uamont.edu

Dr. Maria Johansson, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, (Sweden) is a gender scholar who takes special interest in male-dominated (forestry related) work organizations and organizational change in relation to for example gender equality efforts. Dr. Johansson brings to the Task Force competence regarding qualitative research methods, gender and organization which will contribute to the proposed gender mapping exercise of the IUFRO network and its structures. E-mail: maria.e.johansson(at)slu.se

Dr. Susanne Koch is a researcher and lecturer at the Chair of Forest and Environmental Policy of the Technical University of Munich, and affiliate of the Global Research Programme on Inequality (University of Bergen and International Science Council). Her research focuses on gender- and geography-related inequalities and their epistemic effects in global forest science, and on the role of knowledge diversity in the context of sustainable development and societal transformation. She will contribute to the TF by bringing in a reflexive sociology of science perspective. Email: susanne.koch(at)tum.de  

B. A Hilda Edlund, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, (SLU, Sweden) is a statistician that supports students and staff in SLU on their statistical analysis. She will support the TF with data preparation and analysis. E-mail: hilda.edlund(at)slu.se

Dr. Leida Mercado is a professor and senior researcher at the Tropical Agricultural and Higher Education Center (CATIE) in Costa Rica. As the leader of rural development and adaptation projects in Central America, she has ensured a gender and equity approach while fostering actions to address gender gaps and promoting women and youth economic empowerment. Leida is Venezuelan, holds an agronomic engineering degree as well as a PhD in environmental economics. Email: lmercado(at)catie.ac.cr


Send comments to Gun Lidestav (Task Force Coordinator)