Announcement of New Director

FPP is very happy to announce, that Joji Cariño will be taking up the position of Director of the Forest Peoples Programme from 15th May 2013, in coordination with FPP’s Executive Committee and Board members. Joji, well known to many of you, is a highly regarded indigenous woman from the Philippines with extensive experience on indigenous peoples’ human rights at community, national and international levels, having been an active policy advocate and practitioner for the past 30 years. Joji is internationally recognised as an expert on cultural and biological diversity, traditional knowledge and indigenous peoples’ rights, and international standards on water and energy, large dams and their alternatives, forestry, extractive industries and corporate accountability. She is the coordinator of the International Indigenous Forum on Biodiversity (IIFB) Working Group on Indicators and an organising partner for the Indigenous Peoples Major Group in the UN Commission on Sustainable Development. We are thrilled that she will be joining the FPP team.

Marcus Colchester, the founding Director of FPP is not leaving the FPP team. After more than 20 years as director, Marcus will be stepping down from the directorship, in order to focus on his FPP fieldwork and international advocacy.  He will remain on the team as a Senior Policy Advisor. Under Marcus’s directorship, guidance and insight, FPP has grown from a small team of dedicated human rights activists into a globally respected international human rights organisation with 32 staff supporting grassroots work with more than 30 local partners in 20 countries across Africa, Asia, and South and Central America.