June 6, 2013, 1:30 pm,  Room 4325 Dana Building, School of Natural Resources and Environment

 Talk by Ms. Jan L. McAlpine, Director, United Nations Forum on Forests

Jan McAlpine is Director of the United Nations Division on Forests and head of the United Nations Forum on Forests (UNFF), based at UN Headquarters in New York. The UNFF is a body in the United Nations made up of 193 countries in the United Nations. She previously served as the Senior Advisor and lead negotiator for Forests in the U.S. Department of State in Washington, DC, and in that role headed the interagency and Stakeholder process in the development of the President’s Initiative against Illegal Logging (PIAIL). She also led in the development of the Congo Basin Forest Partnership at the Department of State, launched at the WSSD in Johannesburg by Secretary Colin Powell in September, 2002. Ms. McAlpine conceived and developed the Asia and Africa Forest Law Enforcement and Governance Ministerial process, working with the World Bank and the governments of Indonesia and Cameroon. In 2007 and 2008, Ms. McAlpine was a Visiting Scholar and Senior Researcher at the University of Michigan’s School for Natural Resources and Environment, where she cofacilitated and chaired the first National Summit on Adaptation to Climate Change and edited the proceedings for the Summit. She also helped to establish the Central Africa Forest Research Initiative and now serves as Chair of its Advisory Board. Ms. McAlpine served in the U.S. Government from 1989; she worked in the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) focusing on international policy issues, including developing the first advisory committee to the Administrator on trade and environment issues. Subsequently she worked at the White House, first with the President’s Council on Sustainable Development and then in the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative as the trade negotiator on forest timber, tobacco, and Montreal protocal matter.  Prior to her career in the U.S. Government, Ms. McAlpine worked for 11 years for the Water Environment Federation, an international science and educational association in the water quality field.