Involving indigenous groups and communities in forest management – Stakeholder
Dialogue session speakers
Prof. Jeff Sayer
Session Chair
Professor of Conservation and Development, James Cook University
Jeff has worked throughout his career at the inter-face between research and practical natural
resource management as a researcher or program manager. He has been directly involved in the
development of environmental thinking over the past three decades, working closely with all of the
international environmental conventions and with the World Bank, European Union, United
Nations agencies, leading international NGOs and numerous national governments. His research
has focused on reconciling conservation and community development goals.
Leah Talbot
Engaging Indigenous Communities in Australia’s Wet Tropics
Director, Wet Tropics Management Authority and Commonwealth Scientific and
Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO)
Leah works on the Australian Conservation Foundation’s Cape York programs. She is a Kuku
Yalanji woman whose traditional country borders the Wet Tropics and Great Barrier Reef
World Heritage Areas. She is a member of the Government’s Cape York Peninsula Regional
Advisory Committee and the Australian Conservation Foundation Committee. She has a deep
understanding of the role of Aboriginal people in contemporary environmental management.
Dr Lilian Pintea
Community Forest Monitoring
Vice President, Conservation Science, Jane Goodall Institute (JGI)
Lilian directs the scientific department at JGI and conducts applied conservation research. He trains
local communities in the use of forest monitoring tools and collaborates with them to develop and
implement conservation action plans. Dr. Pintea holds a Ph.D. in conservation biology from the
University of Minnesota and a M.S. in zoology from Moscow State University.
Dr Simon Lord
New Britain Palm Oil Foundation’s community involvement
Group Director for Sustainability, New Britain Palm Oil Limited (NBPOL)
Simon directs all sustainability programs across the New Britain Group. He has nearly 30 years
experience in agriculture production systems and sustainability initiatives. As director of the
NBPOL Foundation he is seeking to improve the education and welfare situation of the
communities surrounding the Group’s operations. He holds a Ph.D. in Environmental Effects of
Pesticides and a B.Sc. in Applied Biology.
Tint Lwin Thaung
Capacity building for better forest management
Executive Director, Centre for People and Forests (RECOFTC)
Dr. Thaung leads RECTOFTC in its mission to enhance the capacity of local communities for
stronger rights, improved governance and fairer benefits for local people in sustainable forest
landscapes in the Asia-Pacific region. He was formerly employed as a Training and Institutional
Development Advisor with The Nature Conservancy, where he led the Responsible Asia Forestry
and Trade (RAFT) Program.