About us

HIFOR is a new nature finance initiative, bridging the gap between climate and biodiversity.

HIFOR is an innovative finance mechanism to scale up investment for the conservation of high integrity tropical forests

These large areas of intact tropical forests provide climate, biodiversity, and socio-economic benefits and are critical for a healthy planet. But our global economies do not pay for those benefits, valuing instead the products of their destruction. HIFOR provides a step away from a world in which global economic systems are a “free-rider” on the services that nature provides – a step toward a world in which our economies pay to maintain essential natural infrastructure we all depend on, beginning with the most complex ecosystems on Earth.

 

HIFOR units represent one hectare of well maintained, high integrity tropical forest located within a large well-conserved landscape. Investments in HIFOR directly support tropical forest conservation and help maintain the critical biodiversity and ecosystem services that they provide.

 

A single investment, with multiple benefits:

  • Claims: Purchasers of HIFOR units can make claims related to land conservation, climate, biodiversity, wildlife populations, and socio-economics.
  • Long-term investment: HIFOR is an investment, not an offset. Maintaining high integrity areas is the cost efficient form of conservation.
  • Climate and biodiversity derisking: Improves outcomes across the whole investment portfolio by accounting for systemic risk (climate regulation and nature loss). Between 35% and 54% of assets held by financial institutions are highly or very highly dependent on ecosystem services supported by biodiversity.
  • Geographically diversified: Reduces the risk of natural capital investment portfolio from natural disasters through a geographically diversified portfolio. The HIFOR portfolio spans the geographic range where high integrity forests are found.
  • No greenwashing: Maintenance of high integrity tropical forests can be demonstrated through easily accessible metrics. HIFOR claims rest on the idea of a global contribution, not a corporate offset.
HIFOR is an innovative finance mechanism to scale up investment for the conservation of high integrity tropical forests
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Scale of HIFOR

Scale of HIFOR

750

million hectares of high integrity tropical forest across Africa, Latin America, Asia, and Oceania

1.8

billion tons of CO₂ removal from the atmosphere per year

36%

At least 36% of the world’s main blocks of high integrity forest are managed by Indigenous Peoples

HIFOR Team

Dan Zarin
Executive Director, Forests and Climate Change
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Dan Zarin
Executive Director, Forests and Climate Change

Daniel Zarin is the inaugural Executive Director for Forests and Climate Change at the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS). Within the context of WCS’ mission of saving wildlife and wild places in 60 countries worldwide, Dan leads a growing global team focused on the role of forests in solving the climate crisis by protecting intact forest ecosystems, preventing the expansion of deforestation and forest degradation frontiers, restoring forests in high-priority landscapes, and enhancing resilience of forests to climate change.

 

Prior to joining WCS in 2021, Dan served as Senior Director of Programs of the Climate and Land Use Alliance (CLUA) since its inception in 2010.

Ashley L. Camhi, Ph.D.
Director of Innovative Finance, Forests and Climate Change
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Ashley L. Camhi, Ph.D.
Director of Innovative Finance, Forests and Climate Change

Ashley L. Camhi’s career and educational passion have centered on the economic incentives for conservation. She has spent much of her career at multilateral banks supporting conservation projects in Latin America and the Caribbean before completing her Ph.D. in Biology and Society at Arizona State University. Her research focused on farmer decision making to enroll land into conservation programs and the subsequent impact on water quality. Most recently Ashley spent two years in the private sector focused on forest carbon and how to utilize jurisdictional REDD+ to halt tropical deforestation. Ashley also founded and led a sustainability nonprofit where she enabled impact driven projects to address natural resource issues such as urban forestry and food security for low-income communities. In addition, Ashley has a Master of Arts in International Environmental Policy from Middlebury Institute of International Studies at Monterey and a Bachelor of Arts in Environmental Studies from Vassar College.

Katie Jung
Climate Change Communications Officer
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Katie Jung
Climate Change Communications Officer

Katie is the Climate Change Communications Officer for WCS and manages the communications strategy across WCS’s Forest and Climate Change team. She develops marketing strategies, marketing metrics and target audience-driven communications tactics to ensure successful delivery of FCC’s programmatic priorities.

 

Katie has served in a number of communications-related roles, namely stakeholder outreach for the Environmental Protection Agency's Office of Public Engagement and digital marketing for Busboys and Poets and National Association of Home Builders' Green Building and Sustainability Department. Katie has a B.S. in Environmental Science from the University of Notre Dame and an M.S. in Environmental Science from State University of New York College of Environmental Science and Forestry (ESF).

Andre Nahur
Forest and Climate Regional Director, Andes Amazon Orinoco Region
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Andre Nahur
Forest and Climate Regional Director, Andes Amazon Orinoco Region

Andre Nahur is the Forest and Climate Regional Director for the Andes Amazon Orinoco Region. Andre brings extensive expertise as a climate change, forest, biodiversity and sustainable development specialist, backed by a strong scientific background. He holds a BA in Biology, a Master's in Biodiversity Management and Conservation, another Master's in Environmental Economics, and an MBA in Project Management.

 

Previously, he served as the Sustainable Development National Officer at UNDP Brasil and has amassed over 15 years of experience in local NGOs, research institutes, and organizations such as GIZ, WWF, and CI. Throughout his career, Andre has successfully developed and implemented policies, programs, and funds, leveraging partnerships with the private sector to drive large scale sustainable development. He possesses skills in public policy, media relations, and has a proven track record of impactful collaborations with social and environmental organizations. with management, monitoring and evaluation expertise, innovative tools, and experience working with multilateral organizations, national banks, and foundations.

Carlos Rittl
Director of Public Policy
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Carlos Rittl
Director of Public Policy

Carlos Rittl holds a bachelor's degree in public administration from the São Paulo Business School of the Getulio Vargas Foundation and a master's and Ph.D. in Biological Sciences/Ecology from the National Institute for Amazonian Research in Brazil. For most of his career, he has led the climate agenda of major organizations in Brazil, having served as Executive Secretary of the Brazilian Climate Observatory, as head of WWF Brazil's Climate and Energy Program, and of Greenpeace Brazil's climate campaign, all with a strong focus on public policies and multilateral processes.

 

He lived in the Amazon for 14 years during his master's and Ph.D. studies and in the early years of his career as an environmentalist. He lived in Germany for 3 years, having been a senior fellow at the Institute for Advanced Sustainability Studies in Potsdam and an international policy advisor to the Rainforest Foundation in Norway. Carlos is a board member of two Brazilian organizations (Uma Gota no Oceano, Amigos da Terra - Amazônia Brasileira), a founding member of two others (Centro Brasil no Clima and Laboratório Observatório do Clima), and a member of the Club de Madrid's Working Group on the Social Dimensions of Climate Change.

Ekena Rangel
Ecological Integrity Research Specialist
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Ekena Rangel
Ecological Integrity Research Specialist

Ekena Rangel Pinage has a bachelor’s degree in Geography and a master’s degree in Forest Sciences from the University of Brasilia, and a PhD degree in Sciences from the University of Technology Sydney, Australia. She worked for the government and non-profit sectors in Brazil, at institutions such as the Brazilian Forest Service, EMBRAPA and WWF-Brasil. Her last appointment prior to joining WCS was with Oregon State University as a post-doctoral scholar. Ekena has experience with spatial conservation planning and monitoring of forest cover, structure, and function with a range of geospatial technologies.

Kathleen Stilson
Program Coordinator, Forests and Climate Change
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Kathleen Stilson
Program Coordinator, Forests and Climate Change
Kemen Austin
Director of Science, Forests and Climate Change
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Kemen Austin
Director of Science, Forests and Climate Change

Kemen Austin is the Director of Science of the Forests and Climate Change program, where she manages a research portfolio aimed at delivering nature-based climate change mitigation solutions. This includes producing science to inform public policies, influence corporate sustainability commitments, and drive climate finance towards the protection, improved management, and restoration of forests and peatlands around the world.

 

Dr. Austin previously worked at the World Resources Institute, where she supported the development of Global Forest Watch and tools for tracking deforestation in agricultural commodity supply chains. She also worked at RTI International, where she led research aimed at understanding the potential magnitude, costs, benefits, and distributional impacts of climate change mitigation and land use programs and policies. Kemen holds a PhD from Duke University, as well as master’s and bachelor’s degrees from Brown University.

Louis Bernard Cheteu
Senior Climate and Biodiversity Policy Advisor, WCS Republic of Congo
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Louis Bernard Cheteu
Senior Climate and Biodiversity Policy Advisor, WCS Republic of Congo

Louis Bernard Cheteu holds a Master of Philosophy (M.phil.) in Geography, Environment and Natural Resource Management; a Diploma in Water, Forest and Wildlife Engineering (Dipl.-Ing.) as well as several other training certificates obtained in turn in Africa, Europe, United States of America and the United Nations system. He has over 20 years' professional experience in the fields of forest, Climate Change, Green Economy, Natural Resources and Protected Areas Management.

 

Before joining the WCS in 2023 as Senior Climate and Biodiversity Policy Advisor, Republic of Congo, Louis Bernard Cheteu has held the positions of: - Specialist in Climate Change and Green Economy for UNDP DRC; - Project Manager of the Kabobo Luama Landscape Conservation Project for UNDP DRC; - International Coordinator of the TRI (Tree Restoration Initiative) project for FAO in CAR; - Chief Technical Advisor of the Gallery Forest Preservation Project for UNDP Benin; - Representative of TEREA Cameroon; - International Expert in Project Management of PRODEVIM for UNDP Mali; -Mentor for the REDD+ and adaptation COBAM pilot projects at CIFOR Cameroon; - Cameroon coordinator of ITTO's REDDES project N° RED-PA 056/11 Rev.1 (F); - Project Manager of PEFOGRN-Congo Basin for RIFFEAC Cameroon; - Technical Director of the Communal Forest Technical Centre in Cameroon for GIZ/FFEM;  - Researcher at IRAD Cameroon.

 

He has successfully completed several consultancy assignments in the fields of environment, climate change and natural resource management for UNDP Mauritania, UNDP Kenya, UNDP Congo, UNDP DRC, FAO Rome, FAO Gabon, FAO Côte d'Ivoire, BRL I France, COMIFAC Cameroon, IUCN/TRAFFIC Cameroon, WWF Cameroon, FODDEC Cameroon, R Pallisco /CIFM Cameroon, PSRF Cameroon. Louis Bernard Cheteu is a member of several professional organizations (FORENET-ACP, FORNESSA, CoForTips, CoForSet, CoForChange) and author of several publications.

Ruth Gutierrez
Consultant
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Ruth Gutierrez
Consultant

Ruth is a project manager and seasoned researcher in social/environmental development. More than 20 years working in the formulation, implementation and evaluation of initiatives with indigenous organization and local communities in the Amazonian region. Ruth has extensive experience on un-contacted indigenous groups to support their social land rights. Practical experience gained through positions as political adviser, director, and project manager.  Before join WCS as consultant, Ruth was the Lead of Climate Land Use Alliance in Colombia and Perú overseeing the implementation of grant-making. Prior to that, she was scientific director at the Bogotá Botanical Garden and Adviser at FAO and UNDP working on issues of food security and social displacement. Ruth has a B.Sc in Biology from the National University of Colombia and MPhil and DPhil in Social Anthropology from Oxford University.

Sophie Dirou
Regional Forest Advisor – Central Africa and Gulf of Guinea
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Sophie Dirou
Regional Forest Advisor – Central Africa and Gulf of Guinea

With a MSc in Rural and Tropical Forestry Sophie has worked over 16 years on Central Africa forest related projects. She has joined the WCS regional office in 2021 and supports the country programs in their projects related to forest management and land use planning. As such she is involved in the different HIFOR regional and national initiatives.

Thomas Hou
Associate General Counsel
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Thomas Hou
Associate General Counsel

Thomas is the primary WCS attorney supporting the Markets and Forests/Climate Change teams. He leverages his extensive corporate and business legal experience as well as his passion for conservation to structure, negotiate and oversee innovative projects and investments, including REDD+, sustainable commodities and other conservation finance projects. Before joining WCS, Thomas worked in several U.S. national law firms on international transactions and at Iveric Bio, a biotechnology company. He has a B.A. in Health & Societies from the University of Pennsylvania and a J.D. from Columbia Law School.

Tom Evans
Senior Director for Forest Conservation
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Tom Evans
Senior Director for Forest Conservation

Dr. Tom Evans is Senior Director for Forest Conservation in the Forests and Climate Change team. He has worked with WCS for nearly 20 years, both in the field and in global policy and science roles. He has a particular interest in mobilizing climate finance, policy ambition and on-the-ground action to secure the world's remaining high integrity forests. In this context, he coordinates the Forests for Life partnership and plays a key role in developing an innovative financing mechanism called HIFOR. He was instrumental in establishing a major voluntary market REDD+ project in Cambodia and supporting one of the first Indigenous communities in that country to obtain a collective land title.

 

Tom holds a PhD from the University of Oxford, UK, where he studied the ecology and economics of non-timber forest product use in Lao PDR.

How we work

How we work

Portfolio

Portfolio