The NFS Technical Panel is administered by Resilience Constellation and takes input from independent experts in the form of reviews of data and methods. Panel members and expert reviewers provide advice to the NFS on an independent professional basis.
Panel Chairman
Richard Tipper, BSc, MSc, PhD, FRSA
Richard studied Agricultural Science and Economics. After completing a doctoral research on the economics of smallholder agriculture in Mexico he led a research project into payments for carbon sequestration by forests. He was nominated to the UK roster of experts on climate change and worked on two IPCC reports on agriculture, forestry and land use change from 1996 to 2005.
Over the past 25 years Richard has worked on a wide range of standards, methods and programmes on climate change and development including Plan Vivo, WBCSD-WRI GHG Protocol, various CDM methodologies, PAS2060 and the Carbon Neutral Protocol. He has advised private and public sector organisations and is currently Chairman of Ecometrica.
Future Risks to Forests Lead
Professor Patrick Meir, BSc, PhD
Patrick’s research interests focus on the functioning of tropical forest ecosystems, and how this varies in relation to climate, soils and species composition. Tropical rain forests are frequently under threat, but still cover substantial areas of the globe and represent a hugely important resource for humanity that we are only beginning to understand properly.
Patrick holds an undergraduate degree, in Biology, from Oxford University (1990) and a PhD in Ecological Science from Edinburgh University (1996). He led two post-doctoral projects (1995-2001) at the Institute of Ecology and Resource Management at the University of Edinburgh, and in 2002 took up a lectureship in the School of Geosciences. He held a Royal Society of Edinburgh research fellowship from 2009-10, and was made Chair in Ecosystem Science in 2010.
Carbon Standards Lead
Nicholas Berry, BSc, MRes, PhD
Nicholas is a tropical forest ecologist specialising in the design and implementation of monitoring, reporting and verification approaches for forest carbon finance projects. His research focuses on developing new understanding of the carbon fluxes associated with tropical land use change, and he has provided technical support to the development of forest carbon projects in Latin America, Africa and Southeast Asia. He has made use of all of the leading carbon standards and is the current chair of the technical advisory committee to the Plan Vivo Foundation.
Project Compliance Lead
Vicky Kelly, BA
Vicky holds a BA in Business Administration and is fully ISO 14064-1 and ISO 14064-3 qualified. She has over 20 years’ experience working in administrative roles for a number of project-based, environmental and not-for-profit organisations. Vicky is one of the original Natural Forest Standard development team, and has been responsible for the coordination and administration of the Standard.
During her years of involvement with the NFS, Vicky has gained valuable insights into the implementation and management of forest protection projects as well as nature-based project development. She is particularly interested in contributing to the strengthening the NFS mechanisms and enhancing its position within the carbon market.
Project Governance Advisor
John Mayhew, BA (Oxon), MSc, MBA, MAPM
John is a forester with over 25 years’ experience in forest management, carbon management, climate risk and vulnerability assessment and building climate change resilience. He has managed a wide range of emission reduction projects, covering carbon sequestration in forests, renewable energy and energy efficiency technologies. He has worked as a certifier of sustainable timber production systems in natural and plantation forest to Forestry Stewardship Council (FSC) standards. More recently he coordinated the development of carbon offset projects in Borneo, which have been verified to the Plan Vivo standard.
Approved methods and data do not necessarily reflect the views of individual contributors or reviewers.