Triangular Cooperation: Innovative Climate-Smart Solutions

Mr. Ross Hampton, Chief Executive Officer, Australian Forest Products Association, Chair, FAO Advisory Committee on Sustainable Forest-based Industries
Ross Hampton has been CEO of the single national body representing forest industries in Australia for the last decade. This body is called AFPA and it covers owners and managers of natural forests and planted forests, timber processors and the pulp, paper and bioproducts sectors.

Under Ross Hampton, AFPA has had two very strong areas of focus for many years.

The first has been to bring to the fore in Australia recognition of the sector’s positive contribution to climate mitigation. The second of his passions has been creating synergies and connections with agriculture and developing new models to produce a win for farmers and a win for forestry.

As Chair of the FAO Advisory Committee on Sustainable Forest-based Industries (ACSFI), Ross Hampton has been able to give these two areas of focus a global dimension.

ACSFI was established in 1960 as one of the half dozen statutory bodies to advise the FAO Director General.  ACSFI is the only statutory body composed of private sector nominees. The job of ACSFI is to provide a conduit between FAO and the private sector. As Chair, Ross Hampton harnesses the thoughts and counsel of private sector leaders from across the globe. 

Ross Hampton has a Master’s Degree in Public Policy (specializing in Environment Policy) from the Australian National University and is a Graduate of the Australian    Institute of Company Directors (AICD).

Dr. Leonardus Vergütz is a professor and soil scientist currently developing the Chair in Soil Science at Mohammed VI Polytechnic University – UM6P.
He is an agronomist with MSc and DSc in Soil Science and Plant Nutrition and has great experience with the highly weathered and acidic soils commonly found in the tropics. Before arriving in Morocco, he was a professor for 7 years at Universidade Federal de Viçosa – Brazil. He has more than 50 peer reviewed publications and is interested in understanding the mechanisms controlling the fate and behavior of elements in the soil-plant-human continuum aiming to build more sustainable and productive agricultural systems. He was part of the advisory group commissioned by the European Commission that wrote the policy paper that should guide the R&I cooperation between Africa and Europe for the Green Transition in Africa. This paper was released earlier this year during the AU-EU Summit and brings soil security to the core of the Green Transition in Africa.

Jay Waldvogel, Senior Vice President, Global Development, Dairy Farmers of America
Jay has more than 30 years of experience in the global dairy industry with leading dairy companies Campina in Europe and Fonterra Co-operative Group in New Zealand. He has held senior positions in finance, operations, marketing, strategy, mergers and acquisitions, sales and general management. Jay currently serves on a number of industry leadership groups and company boards.

Dr. Ahmed Nasr-Allah, Country Director, WorldFish Egypt
Ahmed the Country Director of WorldFish, Egypt since September 2020. He has a long experience as a scientist in the sustainable aquaculture department in WorldFish since 2013. His main specialization area is production system and value chain development. Ahmed has a long field and research experience in Aquaculture since 1988. During which he managed several bilateral projects in Egypt and several African countries such as Nigeria, Ghana, Ethiopia and Eritrea. Ahmed is coordinating an important capacity building program at the Fish for Africa Innovation Hub, Abbassa, Egypt in cooperation with USSEC/SEC. He is a member of several national and regional committees. He is a Principle Research in the Central Laboratory for Aquaculture Research (CLAR) and seconded to WorldFish. He holds a M.Sc. in Aquaculture Management and Planning (University of Hull, UK) and a Ph.D. in Aquaculture (Suez Canal University). Ahmed publications record exceeds 50 articles (per reviewed papers, conference paper, technical report and book chapter). His research interest areas are fish farming systems, water use efficiency in aquaculture and value chain analyses of aquaculture and fisheries sector.

Robynne Anderson, Secretary General, Private Sector Mechanism
Robynne Anderson is an authority on global agricultural and food policies. Her engagement reaches throughout the value chain, providing support on strategy and management to a broad range of clients ranging from scientists to governments, farmers to food processors. Robynne has engaged in processes at the UN General Assembly, Rio+20, the UN Committee on World Food Security, the UN negotiations on the Sustainable Development Goals. She broke new ground in bringing new issues to prominence in the international policy fora, such as the role of women in farming, Voluntary Guidelines on Land Tenure, the importance of post-harvest losses and food waste in food security. Robynne represents accredited organizations at the United Nations, bringing the voice of agriculture in multi-governmental processes. Her company serves as the Secretariat of the International Agri-Food Network (IAFN), she founded the Farming First coalition in 2007, and has coordinated the Farmers Major Group, and the Global Business Alliance 4 the Environment (GBA4E). She led the two-year long negotiations for obtaining the declaration by the UN General Assembly of the International Year of Pulses and then coordinates the activities for the year on behalf of the Global Pulse Confederation reaching 1 billion people on social media. Robynne is the youngest person inducted into the Canadian Agricultural Hall of Fame and is one of just 8 women in the Hall. She also received the 2018 Demeter Award for Woman in Agriculture. Prior to founding Emerging ag, Robynne established Issues Ink, an agricultural publishing company specializing in 12 magazines and electronic titles on Canadian and American agriculture. She started her career in Canadian politics as legislative assistant to the then Deputy Prime Minister of Canada. In addition to her role at Emerging ag, Robynne is part of a family farm in Manitoba, Canada. She is also the founder and current chairman of the Manyinga school project, a non-profit organization that supports orphans to learn agricultural skills through schools.