ForestLeadership, a nonprofit initiative to promote sustainable practices in the forest and paper sector, has announced a new executive leadership development program featuring weekly teleseminars. Delivered by prominent experts and leaders in the forest and paper sector, the teleseminars are designed to help forestry executives keep pace with evolving practices, standards, and new sustainability challenges.

The first segment of teleseminars will start on April 18th and cover one of the most current and critical challenges faced by the forest & paper sector in North America and around the world: identifying and protecting high conservation value, exceptional conservation value and endangered forests. It will feature prominent speakers in this particular field: Tzeporah Berman, Program Director, ForestEthics; Tony Iacobelli, Senior Manager, Landscape Conservation & Planning, WWF-Canada; Dennis Grossman, Vice President for Science, NatureServe; and Sharon Haines, Director of Sustainable Forestry & Forest Policy, International Paper.

The second segment of four teleseminars will start on May 16th and will provide an update on the most strategic developments associated with the leading forest certification programs in North America. The leaders of these four programs will address the teleseminar participants: Heiko Liedeker, Director General, Forest Stewardship Council; Peter Duinker, Chair, CSA Sustainable Forest Management Technical Committee; William Banzhaf, President, Sustainable Forestry Board; and Bob Simpson, National Director, The American Tree Farm System.

Among the topics for future teleseminar segments are: global certified supply chains, biomass and bioenergy, biodiversity indicators, boreal conservation, corporate social responsibility, socially responsible investment, landscape level approaches to forest management, product stewardship and life-cycle assessment, and climate change challenges in the forest and paper sector.