Forests

Specialist Group Chair :

Raul Silva Telles do Valle

Goals of the Specialist Group

• Develop and strengthen legal protection of forests at national, regional, and international levels
• Foster collaboration among legal and interdisciplinary experts to exchange information, produce position papers and policy reports, and report on important meetings to advance the environmental rule of law for sustainable forest stewardship and the conservation of nature
• Provide legal input and influence IUCN activities concerning all aspects related to forests
• Implement the MoU with the Secretariat of the UN Forum on Forests to investigate, prepare, and disseminate best-practices for legal systems, including preparation of a "Model Forest Act" to inform drafting and updating forest legislation globally
• Monitor and contribute to international negotiations with relevance to forests, including the UN Forum on Forests, the International Tropical Timber Agreement, the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, the Convention on Biological Diversity, and the Convention on Migratory Species

Raul Silva Telles do Valle

Raul Silva Telles do Valle is an active Brazilian environmental lawyer, currently the Socioenvironmental Justice Director at WWF Brazil. He has been working with local NGOs since 2000 on issues related to protected areas, forests, indigenous peoples rights, land rights, environmental impact assessment, payment for environmental services, among others. For seven years he coordinated the Policy and Law Program of Instituto Socioambiental, a leading Brazilian environmental organization, where he contributed to the drafting and approval of several important pieces of environmental legislation, including the new Forest Code and the Atlantic Rainforest Protection Act. He also worked in public interest litigation and presented lawsuits related to indigenous land rights, large-scale dam construction, threatened and endangered species, and biodiversity offsets. Most recently, he served as Chief Attorney in the Environmental Secretary of the Federal District of Brasília (Brazil) from 2015 to 2018. There he was responsible for general consultation on environmental and administrative law. Main achievements during his tenure include the proposal and approval of new rules regarding administrative sanctions for environmental regulation incompliance and environmental stewardship of rural properties – including economic incentives for forest conservation and restoration. Mr. Silva Telles do Valle obtained a MSc. in Economic and Environmental Law from the University of São Paulo. He served as a Humphrey Fellow at American University – Washington College of Law – focusing his research on forests, agriculture, and environmental law.