FPP employs a multi-disciplinary team with expertise in land rights, environment, development, and indigenous affairs with high-level qualifications in social anthropology, human rights law, tropical forest ecology and environmental science. The team has longstanding and extensive experience working directly with indigenous peoples and forests in all corners of the globe. FPP structures its work via three programmes: Responsible Finance Programme (RFP), Environmental Governance Programme (EGP), and Legal and Human Rights Programme (LHRP).
Dr Marcus Colchester founded FPP in 1990, and was a dynamic Director, creating and growing an organisation with a reputation for being community grounded, rigorous in its analysis, and nationally and internationally effective. In 2013 he stepped down from that role to focus on community level work, and on specific interventions and innovations at the national and international levels, especially in relation to Indonesia and the impact of palm oil concessions on communities.
During 2015 FPP underwent an organisational review prompted by a period of growth during which we recognised the need to affirm our strategies and update our operational systems in order to maximise our effectiveness, whilst maintaining our uniquely potent and grounded contributions to the struggles of indigenous and forest peoples.
As a result of the review a small Coordination and Management Team (CMT) was formed, who act together with the Director to ensure the operational health of the organisation.
Director
James Whitehead
Coordination and Management Team
Fiona Cottrell: Finance Lead
Louise Henson: Managing Director
Helen Tugendhat: Projects and Operations Lead, Policy Advisor
Staff
Oda Forberg Almas: Project Officer
Patrick Anderson: Policy Advisor, Indonesia
Viola Belohrad: Project Officer
Gordon Bennett: Senior Counsel
Joji Cariño: Senior Policy Advisor
Catherine Clarke: Project Officer, Cameroon
Marcus Colchester: Senior Policy Advisor
Tom Dixon: Communications and Media Manager
Sue Donaldson: Finance Officer
Conrad Feather: Policy Advisor
Gavin Fielding: Project Officer, Latin America
Maurizio Farhan Ferrari: Senior Policy Advisor
Tom Griffiths: Coordinator, Responsible Finance Programme (RFP)
Charlie Hammans: Project Officer, Republic of Congo and Central African Republic
Vanessa Jiménez: Senior Attorney
Caroline de Jong: Co-coordinator, Environmental Governance Programme (EGP)
Justin Kenrick: Senior Policy Advisor
Chris Kidd: Co-coordinator, Environmental Governance Programme (EGP)
Poppy Kohner: Project Officer
Lassana Kone: Lawyer
Tom Lomax: Lawyer, Coordinator, Legal and Human Rights Programme (LHRP)
Fergus MacKay: Senior Counsel
Frances Maclean: Finance Officer
Clare McVeigh: Policy Advisor
Lan Mei: Legal Fellow
Chantelle Murtagh: Project Manager
Kate Newman: Administration Officer
Stephen Nounah: Lawyer, Cameroon
Macnight Nsioh: Project Officer, Cameroon
Julia Overton: Logistics and Administration Manager
Anouska Perram: Lawyer
Agata Pilarz: Project Manager, Central Africa
Brian Rault: Project Finance Officer
Sarah Roberts: Institutional Finance Manager & Charity Secretary
María del Rosario Arango Zambrano: Project Officer, Colombia
Tom Rowley: Community Mapping & Information Systems Designer
Miluska Elguera Solar: Project Officer, Peru
Hannah Storey: Project Officer
Bryony Timms: Head of Programme Engagement
Jak Wagnon: Communications Officer
Clare Whitmore: Database and Technical Officer
Peter Willis: Finance Manager
Tom Younger: Project Officer, Peru
Associates
Associates are experts in their field, and are invited, known and trusted allies and critical friends to FPP who the senior staff look to for input and strategic guidance. On occasion, associates represent FPP in their sphere of expertise, or carry out short consultancies when they are best placed to do so. The role is voluntary, and was agreed at the FPP Board meeting in 2018. The Associates were established by the board to complement and strengthen the role of strategic input and advice they offer to FPP as their governing body. Current Associates are:
Jérémie Gilbert: Professor of Human Rights Law, he has published several books, articles and chapters on the rights of indigenous peoples, looking in particular at their territorial rights. Jérémie often works with indigenous communities and representatives NGOs on cases involving land rights and natural resources. As a legal expert, he has been involved in providing legal briefs, opinions and carrying evidence gathering in several cases involving indigenous peoples’ land rights across the globe.
Norman Jiwan
Helen Newing
Messe Venant
Board of trustees
The Forest Peoples Programme (FPP) is both registered as a UK Charity and a Dutch Stichting. The members of the Board of Trustees perform their duties without remuneration. FPP meets the Wijffels Code and remuneration follows the guidelines of the VFI. (Wijfels Code is a Dutch agreement to not pay salaries higher than that of the Dutch Prime Minister; VFI is a federation of fund raising organisations)
Kate Geary (Co-Chair), Co-Director, Bank Information Centre Europe. Expertise: Community rights to land and resources, private sector, development
Michel Pimbert (Co-Chair), Professor of Agroecology and Food Politics and Director, Centre for Agroecology, Water and Resilience (CAWR), Coventry University
Séamus P Finn (Treasurer), OMI Director, Missionary Oblates of Mary Immaculate; Justice, Peace & Integrity of Creation. Expertise: Ethics and international finance
Sarah Morrison (Head of Audit Committee), Director, Renaisi Ltd; Trustee, Death Penalty Project. Expertise: Charity Accounts and Interim Finance
Johan Frijns, Director, BankTrack, Netherlands; Expertise: International capital flows, safeguards, organisation and personnel management
Silas Siakor, Former Director of Sustainable Development Institute, Liberia. Expertise: Community rights to land and resources, alternative and sustainable development in Liberia
Barney Tallack, Former Strategy and Change Director, Oxfam International. Expertise: Strategy and Strategic Change
Cathal Doyle, Middlesex University London School of Law. Expertise: Free, prior and informed consent, indigenous peoples’ rights, human rights, corporate engagement.
Marie-Josee Artist. Association of Village Leaders in Suriname (VIDS). Expertise” gender and women’s rights, indigenous peoples’ rights, international advocacy, climate change and indigenous peoples.