Plenary 3: The Way Forward

Moderator: Frances Seymour

Senior Fellow, Centre for Global Development

Frances Seymour is the Chair of  the Oslo REDD Exchange Program Committee and a Senior Fellow at the Center for Global Development in Washington, DC.  From 2006 to 2012, she served as Director General of the Center for International Forestry Research (CIFOR).  She previously held positions at World Resources Institute and World Wildlife Fund in Washington, DC, and early in her career was a Ford Foundation Program Officer in Jakarta, Indonesia. 

Abdon Nababan

Secretary General, AMAN

Abdon Nababan is the Secretary General of AMAN.  He is from Batak tribe of North Sumatra, who with Network for the Defense of the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (Jaringan Pembelaan Hak-hak Masyarakat Adat – JAPHAMA), served as secretariat for the founding Congress of the Indigenous Peoples' Alliance of the Archipelago (Aliansi Masyarakat Adat Nusantara – AMAN) now numbering 2,400 member communities. He served two consecutive terms, as Secretary General, elected at the 3rd and 4th Congress of the Indigenous Peoples of the Archipelago (Kongres Masyarakat Adat Nusantara – KMAN). Before leading AMAN, Mr. Nababan worked with civil society activist groups, Forest Watch Indonesia, Telapak, protecting last remaining Indonesia forests and recognizing the rights of indigenous peoples caring for these forests.

Lars Løvold

Executive Director, Rainforest Foundation Norway

Lars Løvold is the Director of Rainforest Foundation Norway. Lars has been engaged in rainforest protection and indigenous peoples’ issues for more than 30 years. He had a key role in stimulating the Norwegian government to engage in REDD+ in 2007, and has been deeply involved in the development of national and international REDD+ policies and initiatives since then. 

Jonathan Pershing (TBC)

Principal Deputy Director, Office of Energy Policy and Systems Analysis

Jonathan Pershing (TBC) Dr. Jonathan Pershing is the Principal Deputy Director of the Office of Energy Policy and Systems Analysis. In this role, he supports DOE’s domestic policy agenda.  Prior to joining DOE, Dr. Pershing was at the U.S. Department of State, where he served as the Deputy Special Envoy for Climate Change and the lead negotiator representing the United States at meetings of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change. Before his appointment to the Obama Administration, he spent six years as the Director of the Climate, Energy and Pollution Program at the World Resources Institute (WRI). Dr. Pershing holds a Ph.D. in geology and geophysics and has contributed to reports of the Nobel-prize winning Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).