The Board also receives input on governance from regular meetings of RRI Partners, which often take place simultaneously with meetings of the Board.
BOARD OF DIRECTORS
Margaret Anne (Peggy) Smith
Chair of the BoardLakehead University, Canada
Biography
Margaret Anne (Peggy) Smith
Peggy is a Registered Professional Forester with the Ontario Professional Foresters Association. She has taught Policy and Legislation in Natural Resources, Environmental Assessment, Aboriginal Peoples and Natural Resources and Natural Resources Development and Aboriginal Peoples in the Faculty of Law. Her research interests have focussed on the social impacts of natural resources management, especially Indigenous peoples’ rights, community forestry, public participation, northern development, and forest certification. Peggy is a member of the Forest Stewardship Council’s Policy and Standards Committee and a member of FSC Canada’s Standards Development Group. Peggy continues her longstanding affiliation as Senior Advisor with the National Aboriginal Forestry Association, an Indigenous-controlled non-profit organization with the goal of increasing Indigenous participation in the forest sector.
Humberto Campodónico Sánchez
TreasurerPeru
Biography
Humberto Campodónico Sánchez
Humberto Campodónico Sánchez is an industrial engineer and has a Master in Economic Development at the Pantheon-Sorbonne University. He is currently working as a professor at the Faculty of Economics at the National University of San Marcos. He has been linked to the Center for Studies and Promotion of Development (DESCO) and the United Nations Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC), as a researcher since 1984 and as a consultant in 2001 and 2002 respectively. In 2010 he was elected Dean of the Faculty of Economics of the University San Marcos. Between July 2011 and December 2012 he served as chairman of Petroperu. Humberto has been working with RRI since 2013 in supporting the coalition in Peru, Latin America and globally. He has written books and scholar articles about privatization, the public sector, hydrocarbons, and state reforms.
Tapani Oksanen
SecretaryFormer Indufor Oy, Finland
Biography
Tapani Oksanen
Tapani Oksanen began his career as a forest economist and expert in community-based small-scale forest industry development and extension, working for the FAO in Honduras and the highlands of Peru. In the early 1990s, Tapani held the position of Forest Adviser in the development department of the Finnish Ministry for Foreign Affairs (then FINNIDA). His experience as a consultant includes clients such as the Ministry for Foreign Affairs of Finland, Sida, Norad, the Nordic Development Fund, DFID, GTZ, the World Bank, IDB, FAO, UNDP, and the European Commission, with a geographic focus on Latin America, Eastern and Southern Africa, and Southeast Asia. He has held the positions of Managing Director and Chairman of the Board of Indufor, one of the leading forest and forest industry consulting companies in Finland. From 2005 to 2007 Tapani worked as the Task Team Leader for the World Bank Forest Law Enforcement and Governance (FLEG) Program. Tapani lives in Helsinki, from where he continues to engage in consultancy work as an independent adviser. He has M.Sc. degrees in forest products marketing and in the social economics of forestry from the University of Helsinki.
Nighisty Ghezae
MemberInternational Foundation for Science, Sweden
Biography
Nighisty Ghezae
Dr. Nighisty Ghezae is the Director of the International Foundation for Science (IFS). She has a B.A. in economics, an MSc in the legal and institutional management of water resources, and PhDs in natural water resources management, as well as international economics (focusing on the impact of the global economy on Africa and its development). She has more than 30 years of professional experience as a lecturer, researcher, senior network officer, training organizer, program and project leader, and evaluator. As a network officer with the Global Water Partnership she managed a number of integrated water resources management projects and led the work program of four regional offices in Africa and two in the Mediterranean. Serving as a Head of Programme at IFS, she’s coordinated its programme of activities, helped develop strategy and policy, oversaw research areas, coordinated and evaluated supporting activities provided to the IFS constituency, and supervised programme staff.
Chris Jochnick
MemberLandesa, United States
Biography
Chris Jochnick
Chris Jochnick is a global land rights expert and social entrepreneur with decades of experience in international development. Chris joined Landesa as CEO in August 2015 after leading Oxfam America’s work on corporate engagement including shareholder engagement, value chain assessments, and collaborative advocacy initiatives. Chris spent seven years working in Latin America, devoting much of that time to addressing threats to indigenous peoples’ land rights. Prior to Oxfam, Jochnick worked as a corporate attorney with the Wall Street law firm Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton and Garrison, on corporate governance and social responsibility issues.
Anne Larson
MemberCenter for International Forest Research, United States
Biography
Anne Larson
Anne M Larson conducts research on multiple aspects of forest and landscape governance policy and institutions, including property rights, climate change, decentralization, indigenous territories and gender, from local to international scales. Her current work includes developing research strategies, projects and methodologies; fundraising; supervising and conducting research; writing and editing books, reports, article, briefs and more popular materials such as illustrated training manuals and flyers in indigenous languages; networking with policy-makers, NGOs and grassroots organizations for impact; and project management. She is also a member of the council of the International Association for the Study of the Commons (IASC, 2014-16). Current research priorities include opportunities and challenges for forest tenure reforms; women’s rights to land in communal forests; and multilevel governance, REDD+ and low emissions development. She coordinates fieldwork for CIFOR in Peru, Nicaragua, Mexico, Tanzania, Uganda, Ethiopia, Indonesia and Vietnam.
Mina Susana Setra
MemberIndigenous Peoples' Alliance of the Archipelago (AMAN), Indonesia
Biography
Mina Susana Setra
Mina is an indigenous Dayak Pompakng from West Kalimantan, Indonesia. Mina has worked on indigenous, environment, and climate policy at the Indonesia’s Indigenous Peoples’ Alliance of the Archipelago (AMAN) since it was founded in 1999 and is AMAN’s Deputy Secretary General.
Stanley Kimaren ole Riamit
MemberIndigenous Livelihoods Enhancement Partners (ILEPA), Kenya
Biography
Stanley Kimaren ole Riamit
Ole Riamit is an Indigenous peoples’ leader from the Pastoralists Maasai Community in southern Kenya. His is the Founder-Director of Indigenous Livelihoods Enhancement Partners (ILEPA) a community based Indigenous Peoples organization based in Kenya. Kimaren has extensive exposure and experience in engaging with and influencing international processes and mechanism of interests to Indigenous peoples, in which he has represented the global indigenous Peoples movement in various capacities. He has for example served as Chair of the International Indigenous Peoples Forum on Climate Change (IIPFCC), Anglophone African representatives to the World Bank’s Forest Carbon Partnership Facility (FCPF) and most recently as Southern CSOs Active Observer to the Green Climate Fund (GCF) among other important portfolios.
Gustavo Sánchez Valle
MemberMesoamerican Alliance of Peoples and Forests (AMPB), Mexico
Biography
Gustavo Sánchez Valle
Gustavo is a member of the Executive Committee of the Mesoamerican Alliance for People and Forests and President of the Executive Council of the MOCAF Network, a Mexican Network of Forest Peoples’ Organizations that has contributed greatly to the development of the country’s rural regions. Gustavo also participates in many global forums (FCPF, DGM, etc.) to bring the voice of local communities and has recently been working with RRI and PCN (Proceso Comunidades Negras, Colombia) to influence the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change’s Platform of Local Communities and Indigenous Peoples regarding the participation and representation of local communities.
Solange Bandiaky-Badji
MemberRights and Resources Group, United States
Biography
Solange Bandiaky-Badji
Dr. Solange Bandiaky-Badji is Coordinator of the Rights and Resources Initiative (RRI). She also serves as President of the Rights and Resources Group, the nonprofit coordinating mechanism of the RRI Coalition based in Washington, D.C. Bandiaky-Badji previously led RRI’s strategy for engagement in Africa with a focus on tenure rights reform. She built synergies around new strategic analyses, giving local and global actors a more strategic understanding of trends, issues, options, and gender in Africa. She also spearheaded RRI’s Gender Justice thematic program, and ensured the implementation of a global gender strategy on women’s tenure rights. Before RRI, she was with PartnersGlobal, where she led programs on access to justice, security sector reform, and peace-building. She has also worked as a regional expert on gender and climate change for the Africa Adaptation Programme (AAP) and the UNDP/ BDP Gender Team in New York. As Coordinator of RRI, Solange advises policy research, advocacy, and engagement in Asia, Latin America, and Africa and leads initiatives and networks to advance RRI’s mission. Bandiaky-Badji holds a PhD in Women’s and Gender Studies from Clark University, Massachusetts and an MA in Environmental Sciences and in Philosophy from Cheikh Anta Diop University, Senegal. She has published and contributed extensively to research in relation to natural resource management, decentralization, local forest tenure reforms, and women’s participation in climate solutions and peace-building.
Andy White
Co-founder, Rights and Resources InitiativeRights and Resources Group, United States
Biography
Andy White
Andy White is Senior Advisor of the Rights and Resources Initiative (RRI). Until mid-2021, he was the Coordinator of the RRI and President of the Rights and Resources Group, the nonprofit coordinating mechanism of the RRI Coalition based in Washington, D.C. Prior to co-founding RRI in 2005, Andy served as Senior Director of Programs at Forest Trends and Natural Resource Management Specialist at the World Bank. He also worked as a consultant to the International Food Policy Institute, Save the Children Federation, and the Inter-American Foundation. He has worked extensively in Haiti, Mexico, and China. During his time as Coordinator of the RRI, Andy advised policy research, advocacy, and engagement in Asia, Latin America, and Africa and led initiatives and networks to advance RRI’s mission. His research and publications have focused on forest tenure and policy, forest industry and trade, as well as the role of forests, communities, and institutions in climate change. Andy has a PhD in forest economics, a M.A. in anthropology from the University of Minnesota, and a B.S. in forestry from Humboldt State University.
To learn more about governance of the Rights and Resources Initiative, see the Memorandum of Understanding signed by all Partners and visit our institutional information page.