BA (Cambridge, UK), MSc (Imperial College London, UK)

Charlene’s experience is in environmental valuation, payments for environmental services (PES) and forestry carbon initiatives for climate change mitigation. Her interest lies in the economic and political aspects of conservation and particularly in reduced emissions from deforestation and degradation (REDD) which brings together a number of contemporary issues in conservation and development.

The environmental economics expertise Charlene holds is underpinned by a theoretical and practical background in natural sciences. At the start of her career, Charlene spent two years with a conservation NGO, firstly as a recruitment and training co-ordinator and secondly, as a research co-ordinator carrying out baseline biodiversity surveys in South-West Nicaragua. The disparities in conservation between neighbouring Latin American countries incentivised Charlene’s return to the UK to study Environmental Economics and Policy in London. This in turn, took Charlene to the Bale Mountains in the south eastern highlands of Ethiopia. Here she has designed and undertaken a number of environmental valuation studies as well as forest carbon stock assessments, projections of emission reductions and estimated revenues for REDD projects through the voluntary carbon markets.

Charlene has worked as an advisor for the development of a REDD project in Ethiopia by the Oromia State and Forest Wildlife Enterprise supported by Farm Africa and SOS Sahel. This work has included building awareness and capacity through REDD presentations and training as well as publications including; A Rapid Guide to REDD and Public Good Provision through Forestry. Charlene has also worked with UNDP to develop a land-use, land-use change and forestry accounting toolkit and a publication on Forest Carbon Accounting: Overview and Principles. She also worked on the World Bank World Development Report 2010 producing a background paper on The Clean Development Mechanism: sustainable development benefits.

Charlene holds a BA in Natural Sciences (Zoology) from the University of Cambridge and an MSc in Environmental Economics and Politics from Imperial College London. She continues to study towards a PhD at London School of Economics and Politics, investigating the costs of forest conservation to forest-dependent rural communities in the Ethiopian highlands and whether costs can be overcome with benefits that a REDD project can bring.