HCSA announced as a Top Innovator Winner of the Tropical Forest Commodities Challenge at COP 26

Today at COP26’s Nature Pavilion, the HCSA was announced as one of the five Top Innovation winners of the Tropical Forest Commodities Challenge by Lord Zac Goldsmith, the U.K.’s Minister of Environment, in recognition of HCSA’s efforts to halt tropical deforestation and accelerate inclusive integrated conservation land-use practices.

Tropical rainforests are staggeringly productive reservoirs of life and biodiversity, and their protection is a critical nature-based solution that will contribute real progress toward limiting global warming to 1.5°C.  One of the main drivers of tropical deforestation, and a consequential contribution to climate change, biodiversity loss, adverse livelihood impacts, is agricultural and plantation expansion. The HCSA is the most widely recognised and credible method being used to address deforestation in agricultural and plantation expansion in the tropics.

To take action to stop commodity-driven deforestation and scale nature positive land-use practices, under the UK Government UNCOP26 Presidency’s FACT (Forest, Agriculture and Commodity Trade) Dialogue initiative,[i] the Tropical Forest Commodities Challenge was launched and supported the World Economic Forum’s Uplink Innovation Network, the Tropical Forest Alliance, and other supporting partners.[ii]  The Tropical Forest Commodities Challenge was seeking breakthrough scalable solutions to deliver benefits to the global environment, while also ensuring sustainable livelihoods for stakeholders and systematic change to shift commodity-supply chains to responsible land use production that protects rather than clears High Carbon Stock forests and High Conservation Value areas.  

As a Top Innovator winner, HCSA effectively demonstrated that it has made progress, which can be further scaled and accelerated, against all the Challenge’s focus areas: market transformation; smallholder success; research and innovation; and traceability and transparency. [iii]

The HCSA’s mission is to end commodity-driven tropical deforestation by providing land managers with practical, credible, and inclusive tools for land use planning. It is a Toolkit that uses remoting sensing data and ground surveys to distinguish forest areas for protection from degraded lands that may be developed whilst ensuring that the rights and livelihoods of communities and workers are respected.  It can be used for integrated land use planning in any country and commodity grown in tropical moist forest landscapes. The HCSA is innovating its methodology for application by independent smallholders and will soon publish a procedure for producing high-quality indicative HCSA-HCV maps at a landscape level. The HCSA Toolkit has been used or trialled in 12 countries for plantations of oil palm, pulpwood, cocoa, and rubber and is recognised as a Nature-based Solution to climate change by the UN.

As a winner of the Challenge, the HCSA has been invited to join the UpLink Innovation Network of the World Economic Forum’s four-month Top Innovator Programme.[iv] This programme will facilitate profiling and networking opportunities to support the scaling of the implementation of HCSA along with the other challenge winners.  HCSA’s is excited to engage in the Top Innovator Programme and forge new collaborations and support to achieve its goal of conserving five million hectares of tropical forest by 2025 and realise the vision where natural forests linked to commodity production and consumption are conserved and restored throughout the tropics in cooperation with indigenous peoples and local communities.

[i] The FACT dialogue initiative is co-chaired by the UK and Indonesian government, with support from the Tropical Forest Alliance, to accelerate the transition towards more sustainable land-use practices around agriculture.
[ii] The Tropical Forest Commodities Challenge initiative is led by the Tropical Forest Alliance and Uplink, FACT Dialogue, UN Climate Change Conference UK 2021, run in partnership with supporting partners: Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation, Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO), Stockholm Environment Institute, WAIK, Wilmar.
[iii] The HCSA addresses the Tropical Commodities Challenge four focus areas in the following ways:
1. Market Transformation
The HCSA is widely used by market actors to demonstrate implementation of their No Deforestation commitments; it is enabling methodology for supporting responsible business practices/products that contribute to long-term tropical forest protection.
2. Smallholder Success
To support access for independent smallholders and communities to conserve High Carbon Stock forests and High Conservation Values areas in tropical forests, the HCSA is developing and trialling ‘A Simplified HCS-HCV Approach for Smallholders’.
3.Transparency & Traceability
The HCSA Toolkit is open access but requires registration of planned HCSA assessments and working with accredited practitioners. HCSA assessment conservation and community use outcomes are reported via publicly available and independently reviewed stand-alone HCSA or HCV-HCSA assessments.
4. Research & Innovation
The HCSA’s methodology is based on the best available science and was field-tested to ensure it was practical. HCSA continues to work with research institutes to trial innovations for large-scale mapping of HCS forests and HCV areas.
[iv] HCSA has been invited to join the UpLink Innovation Network of the World Economic Forum and will be recognized as a Top Innovator. The Top Innovator Programme seeks to:
• Maximize the visibility of your venture by providing public exposure via the World Economic Forum and UpLink digital media channels.  
• Offer global exposure and access to select World Economic Forum and partner events.
• Offer facilitated introductions to World Economic Forum and UpLink networks of partners, experts, and investors.  
• Give one year access to the World Economic Forum’s digital collaboration and knowledge platform, TopLink.

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Development Manager

Natalia Merchan

Natalia Merchan joined HCSA as a Business Development consultant in 2020. She is responsible for fundraising in general and building relationships with new donors. Natalia has over 10 years of fundraising experience with foundations, major donors, institutional and corporate donors. Prior to joining HCSA, she worked with Greenpeace as a major gifts’ advisor raising funds for the forests campaign. She holds an MSc. in Environmental development from the University of Amsterdam.

Digital Designer & Communications Officer

Kirsti Drain

Kirsti joined in 2022 and is responsible for visual digital content production for HCSA’s new website, digital assets for all communication channels, as well as design for corporate reports and bids. She has over 20 years of experience in design and content across web, digital and print channels in a broad range of sectors. She previously worked as senior graphic designer for Capital City College Group in London and digital designer and content editor for the Commonwealth. She has a BA in Film and Photographic Arts from the University of Westminster.

Outreach Executive

Saffira Mohamed

Saffira Mohamed joined the High Carbon Stock Approach in 2022 as Membership Officer. She supports the Membership Outreach Manager and Membership Committee. Saffira has experience in avifauna surveying and graduated with a bachelor’s degree in Forestry from University Putra Malaysia with a focus on Forest Management.

Communications Manager

Leslie Jewell

Leslie is responsible for producing and managing HCSA’s internal and external communications. Her background is journalism, starting as a reporter and then current affairs producer with BBC World Service Radio and BBC Radio 4. She moved into international TV news, working in Russia, Ukraine and Central Asia as Bureau Producer in Moscow for BBC News and covered New York and Washington as North American Bureau Producer for Reuters. She studied politics at Cardiff University and speaks French, Italian and Russian.

Head of Development

Jesús Cordero

Jesús Cordero is our Head of Development. He leads on the development and deployment of our Membership Strategy, coordinates the Membership Committee, and supports the development of our Information Management, Communications, Fundraising and HR functions. Jesús has extensive experience with membership and communications management and innovations as well as promoting smallholders’ livelihoods in the tropics via sustainable land use management approaches. Jesús speaks English and Spanish, and he holds a degree in Forestry, an MSc. in Agroforestry (Cranfield University), an MSc. in Communications for Innovation and Development (University of Reading) and an M.A. in Translation Studies (University of Portsmouth).

Landscape and monitoring manager

Jonathan Byers

Jonathan Byers is responsible for managing the HCSA Global Forest Watch Pro monitoring platform. Jonathan has a diverse background in natural and physical science research, cartography and GIS, non-profit management, education, and digital storytelling. Most recently he led a National Geographic funded project to study the habitat and behaviour of the endangered Matschies’s tree-kangaroo in Papua New Guinea to assist community conservation efforts. He previously worked on cartography projects for Panthera to provide high-resolution maps for tiger anti-poaching efforts in Malaysia, and for the National Park Service mapping glacier retreat in California and Alaska. Jonathan holds an MSc. Degree in Geography from the University of Montana.

Administrative Officer

Anis Farhana Wahab

Anis Farhana Wahab is the Administrative Officer of the High Carbon Stock Approach. She supports the HCSA Executive Director, HCSA Executive Committee and working groups on HCSA governance and priority workstreams. She holds a Bachelor of Science (Major in Biology with Minor in Psychology) from Carleton University.

Quality manager

Daneetha Muniandy

Daneetha Muniandy joined the HCS Approach in 2020 as the Quality Assurance Officer. She is responsible for supporting HCSA Grievance Mechanism Unit, HCSA trial applications and other HCSA QA work. Daneetha has experience in forest conservation and holds both, a diploma and degree in Forestry from University Putra Malaysia (UPM).

Finance Manager

Lee Kuan Lih

Lee Kuan Lih joined HCSA as a Finance Manager in 2020. He is responsible for the company’s bookkeeping, budgets, and cash flow control. Prior to joining HCSA, he was a finance manager in Helikonia. He was also in charge of financial matters at Apple Crumby & Fish, a start-up e-commerce platform for essential baby products and had previously worked as an auditor. Kuan Lih holds a Bachelor of Business and Commerce (majoring in accounting and finance) from Monash University, Malaysia. He is also a Certified Practising Accountant as a member of CPA, Australia.

EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR

Adrian Choo

Adrian Choo is the Executive Director of the High Carbon Stock Approach. He leads the development and implementation of HCSA’s strategic business plan, oversees the HCSA membership and Secretariat and fosters partnerships to drive HCSA’s impact and growth. Adrian has extensive experience in tropical forest certification, palm oil sustainability and high conservation value areas. He led the Sustainable Markets Programme Strategy at WWF-Malaysia and was Chair of FSC Malaysia for several years. Adrian has a BA in Forestry and a PhD in Biocomposite Technology from Universiti Putra Malaysia, where he was also a Post-doctoral Research Fellow.