GC Hosts Panel In Washington DC and New York City with World Bank and Global Environment Facility for New Series LAST LANDS
Overview of East Coast Events for LAST LANDS
At the National Press Club in Washington, DC, Global Conservation hosted an enlightening panel discussion led by Bob Woodruff of ABC News with Valerie Hickey, Vice President of Environment and Carlos Manuel Rodriguez, CEO of GEF.
Additionally, in New York at The Explorer’s Club, Global Conservation had guest speakers Dr. Richard Hansen of Mirador National Park, Guatemala and Oliver Fankem, Director of Central Africa for Global Conservation who works to protect the Dja Rainforest Complex, which is over 2 million acres in Cameroon and Gabon.
The panel discussions at both events were led by Bob Woodruff of ABC News. He also screened segments of LAST LANDS, a new Disney/Hulu four-part series on protecting our planet’s endangered national parks and indigenous territories in developing countries.
Primary topics and takeaways included:
Our world’s positive progress to increase protected areas in the Global South to 2/3 of worldwide in the past 25 years, an increase from over 200 million acres.
Sustainable Forestry is taking root in countries like Cameroon, preventing large-scale clear cutting of the last intact tropical rainforests in the Congo.
Global Park Defense and Community Protection case studies in Cameroon, Thailand, and Guatemala show concrete progress to protect large endangered forests.
Thailand has seen a 250 percent increase in tiger numbers due to the great work of Thai Park and Wildlife and their partners—WCS Thailand and Freeland—both supported by Global Conservation.
The Critical Need for Economic Solutions to Protect National Parks and Marine Ecosystems: Tourism, REDD Carbon Offsets, Multilateral Funding for Protection and Sustainable Development.
Law expertise in nature conservation can be invaluable, as national parks and indigenous territories in many countries are legally protected under the Constitution.
New Economic Models to justify protection of our last intact tropical forests, including water, ecotourism, carbon sequestration, and community-based use of non-timber forest products (NTFPs).
National Press Club - Panelists
Bob Woodruff - ABC News Correspondent
Bob Woodruff joined ABC News in 1996 and has covered major stories around the world, mostly recently LAST LANDS.
Bob succeeded Peter Jennings as anchor of "ABC World News Tonight" and has been ABC’s primary correspondent throughout Asia, especially North Korea and China.
The Woodruff family established the Bob Woodruff Foundation (BWF) to raise money to assist injured service members, veterans and their families.
Bob has a law degree from the University of Michigan Law School and a Bachelor of Arts from Colgate University. He and Lee have four children.
Valerie Hickey - World Bank Global Director for Environment (ENV)
She assists countries and communities on issues related to climate change, sustainable forest management, integrated conservation and development, integrated coastal zone management, fisheries, pollution management and environmental health.
Valerie joined the World Bank in 2003 as a specialist in East Asia and the Pacific, working on environment and rural development projects in Cambodia, China and Lao.
Before joining the World Bank, Valerie worked for World Wildlife Fund, the Wildlife Conservation Society and the US National Park Service. Valerie holds a Ph.D. in Environmental Science and Policy from Duke University.
Carlos Manuel Rodríguez - CEO and Chairperson, Global Environment Facility
Lawyer by profession, politician by choice, and conservationist at heart, Carlos Manuel Rodríguez is a former Costa Rican Environment and Energy Minister was a pioneer in the development of Payment for Ecosystem Services initiatives and strategies for forest restoration, ocean conservation, and de-carbonization.
As CEO of GEF, he is an internationally recognized expert on environmental policy, multilateral environmental negotiations, and financing for nature conservation.
During his three terms as Minister of Environment and Energy, Costa Rica doubled the size of its forests, made its electric sector 100 percent clean and renewable, and consolidated a National Park System that has positioned the Central American country as a prime ecotourism destination.
Oliver Fankem - Director for Central Africa
Oliver Fankem is a conservation biologist from Cameroon and our Global Conservation’s Director for Central Africa.
Oliver has two Masters in Science degrees (Wildlife Management and Conservation Biology from the University of Kent, UK).
Over the last 15 years he has worked on forest, elephant and great ape conservation in Cameroon in protected area management, law enforcement, and wildlife monitoring,
Since 2009, he worked with the Zoological Society of London (ZSL) as TRIDOM Landscape Manager. Now with Global Conservation, Oliver is responsible for park and wildlife protection in Dja Rainforest Complex, Nki and Ngoryla National Parks – over 2 million acres of intact tropical rainforest in the Congo.
He recently secured over $1.5M in grants from EU Natur+ and the UK Defra Fund for International Wildlife Trafficking.
Jessica Graham - President, JG Global Advisory, LLC
She works with executive leadership to provide strategic planning, business development, and project management solutions for international organizations at the cross section of law enforcement and conservation.
She previously worked as a Senior Advisor to the U.S. State Department, Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs developing their environmental crime program and serving as the Team Leader.
As part of the former Presidential Task Force for Combating Wildlife Trafficking, Jessica coordinated and implemented USG efforts to strengthen law enforcement responses and develop capacity building and training across Africa, Asia, and Latin America.
Jessica received her Master’s degree from the University of California, San Diego where she studied International Politics, Environmental Policy, and Chinese Studies and holds a Bachelor’s degree from the University of Florida. She is currently based in Washington, DC.
Jessica’s research includes threat convergence and the role of corruption and financial crimes involved in wildlife trafficking.
LAST LANDS by ABC News LIVE Special Films Division, produced by Victor Ortinez in partnership with GC.
