In 2017, the FairWild Foundation established an Advisory Panel in order to provide strategic and technical guidance to the Board of Trustees. A group of selected expert collaborators with specific knowledge and skills have been invited to assist the FairWild Foundation with its development and programme implementation, and ensure that the Foundation's initiative remains true to its mission.
Members of the Advisory Panel
Marin Anastasov
Marin Anastasov grew up in Bulgaria, where he was involved in sustainable herb collection and resource management. He studied agriculture and subsequently completed MSc in Organic farming at Aberdeen University. Marin joined Pukka Herbs as Sourcing manager and has since led the development of the value chain, balancing the demands of rapid business growth, ethical trade and environmental conservation. He is a Master Beekeeper and apart from running his own colonies, he delivers training and education to beekeepers in the UK and abroad.
MARÍA DE LOS ÁNGELES LA TORRE CUADROS
María de los Ángeles is a Peruvian scientist with a PhD in Sciences in Ecology and Sustainable Development from El Colegio de la Frontera Sur (ECOSUR), Mexico. She is currently Visiting Professor at the Universidad Nacional Agraria La Molina, in Lima, Peru, and has also held a postdoctoral position with World Agroforestry Centre (ICRAF). Her research interests span quantitative ethnobotany (non-timber forest product systems), traditional ecological knowledge, local perception, floristic composition of forests in relation to different environmental factors, ecosystem services, and environmental education. Dr. La Torre Cuadros is founder and Chair of the board of A Rocha Peru Association.
Nuning Barwa
Nuning Barwa is Corporate Social Responsibility Director at Martina Berto, an Indonesia-based manufacturing company engaged in the manufacturing, marketing and trading of cosmetic products, beauty care products and herbal medicines. Martina Berto's brands are marketed across Southeast Asia, Japan, Hong Kong, Taiwan and the Middle East.
Francis Blake
Francis Blake studied agriculture and forestry at Oxford University, then farmed organically for ten years. He joined the Soil Association in 1986, first as certification director, then standards director, and was also president of IFOAM EU Group in that time. Semi-retired, Francis is now Chief Advisor to COSMOS-standard AISBL and is on the Board of IOAS. Besides organic farming, his other obsessions are bee-keeping, the mandolin and Ki aikido.
Josef Brinckmann
Josef Brinckmann is a Research Fellow at Traditional Medicinals, Inc; a member of the IUCN’s Medicinal Plant Specialist Group of the Species Survival Commission (SSC); a member of ABC; a member of the Advisory Group of the Sustainable Herbs Program (SHP) at ABC; and member of the Botanical Dietary Supplements and Herbal Medicines Expert Committee and of the Nomenclature Joint Sub-Committee of the United States Pharmacopeia (USP).
Mike Brook
Mike Brook is the Founder Director of the Organic Herb Trading Company, UK. Mike has provided consultancy services for intergovernmental agencies, NGOs and ethical businesses including Oxfam, CBI and Traidcraft. He has served on a number of prominent industry committees and boards including the Soil Association Standards Board and the Union for Ethical BioTrade, and on the FairWild Board from 2017 - 2020.
Ximena Buitrón
Ximena Buitrón is a consultant and advisor. A biologist, she has extensive experience on medicinal plant conservation, sustainable business and biodiversity and policy related topics. Ximena is a member of the Medicinal Plant Specialist Group of the IUCN Species Survival Commission, a member of the Latin American Botanical Association, a founding member of the Ecuadorian Society of Bioethics, and of FUNBOTANICA.
Susan Curtis
Susan Curtis worked for the ethical natural health and beauty company Neal’s Yard Remedies since the 1980s until 2021. In her role as Director of Natural Health, she championed awareness of natural and organic ingredients and products, and helped to develop projects with many of the suppliers that grow or collect the agricultural ingredients that make the essential oils, herbal remedies, etc. Wild harvested projects she helped develop include: frankincense (Kenya, Oman), rosehip (Serbia) and base oils from Nepal.
Alejandro Casas Fernández
Alejandro Casas Fernández is a Mexican biologist; he obtained Bachelor Master degrees in Biology at the Faculty of Sciences of the National University of Mexico (UNAM), and a PhD at the Plant Sciences School in the University of Reading, UK. Currently, he is a Senior Researcher at UNAM, working in the Institute for Research in Ecosystems and Sustainability (IIES). His research areas include the ecology and evolution of biodiversity under processes of domestication, ecological bases for sustainable management of biotic resources and ecosystems, in-situ management of genetic resources, and ethnoecology and biocultural heritage.
Jeremy Johnson
Jeremy Johnson is Senior Counsel at Traditional Medicinals, Inc. where he oversees the legal and regulatory department, including compliance with certification standards. Jeremy received his undergraduate degree from University of California, Irvine and his juris doctorate from Tulane University Law School.
Bianca von Keyserlingk
Bianca von Keyserlingk is currently head of online marketing and e-commerce at Primavera Life GmbH, Germany. Primavera is currently Germany’s largest aromatherapy company and essential oil provider in retail. She has previously worked for Essences Naturelles Corses, a natural ingredients and essential oil producer in Corsica, specialized in Mediterranean plants and extraction procedures.
Sonia Lagos-Witte
Sonia Lagos-Witte holds a Master’s degree in Biology and a PhD. in Agriculture Sciences from the Friedrich Wilhelm University of Bonn, Germany. In 1984, she started a research project on medicinal plants at the National Autonomous University of Honduras UNAH. From 1994 until 2005 she led the Medicinal Plants Program TRAMIL Central America as Regional Coordinator. She is currently involved in several international projects with relation to Botany, Ethnobotany and conservation of Biodiversity. Among these are the Latin American Botanical Network RLB and the Latin American Ethno-botanical Group GELA. Sonia is Professor at UNAH, teaching on the PhD Program on Human Developmental Sciences and the Master Studies on Botany.
Wilson Lau
Wilson Lau is the Vice President of Nuherbs, an importer of organic and pharmacopeia grade Chinese herbs. As the third-generation member of this family business, he has been surrounded by herbs since infancy. His passion and respect for traditional Chinese medicine has led him to form enduring partnerships with farmers, wildcrafters, and processors who are committed to eco-friendly, sustainable practices in order to ensure the quality, safety, traceability, and longevity of Chinese herbs. Dedicated to the advancement of traditional Chinese medicine, Wilson is currently a member of the Board of the American Herbal Products Association and member of the US Technical Advisory Group (TAG) for ISO/TC249 Traditional Chinese Medicine.
Ákos Máthé
Ákos Máthé is Professor of Botany at the Faculty of Agricultural and Food Sciences, University of West Hungary. His diverse research interests include development of cultivation methods for e.g. Lobelia inflata and Euphorbia lagascae; the study of plant growth characteristics and active principles, oil production; and in vitro multiplication of horticultural (ornamental) species. He has published widely in national and international journals, and is currently working on the monograph series "Medicinal Plants of the World", in 9 volumes, by Springer. Ákos serves as Coordinator for the ESCORENA medicinal plants network, and has previously acted as President for the International Council for Medicinal and Aromatic Plants (ICMAP).
Florentine Meinshausen
Florentine Meinshausen has worked in certification and development of social and environmental standard systems for over 17 years. After managing certification of organic and other sustainability standards at a renowned international certification body, Florentine focused in recent years on Fair Trade, Ethical Trade and Social Responsibility standards. She has worked with all scales of production and trade, from small producers in developing countries to international corporations and brands. Florentine has written the first version of the FairWild Standard, and later assisted in the development of version 2.0. Florentine now lives with her family in Zurich and works as a freelance consultant.
Greg Mueller
Greg Mueller is Chief Scientist and Negaunee Vice President of Science, Chicago Botanic Garden, USA. He Chairs the IUCN SSC Fungi Conservation Committee, and is Chair and Red List Authority Coordinator of the IUCN SSC Mushroom, Bracket and Puffball Specialist Group. Greg is widely known and respected in the mycological community for his efforts to advance awareness of the importance of fungi and the need to conserve them, and has focused one of his areas of expertise on systematics of the groups of fungi of greatest importance to wild harvesters. Greg is collaborating with FairWild Foundation on efforts currently underway to expand sustainability certification to wild fungi.
Snehlata Nath
Snehlata Nath is a founder member and Director of Keystone Foundation – an NGO active in the field of conservation of natural resources, livelihood and enterprise development with indigenous communities. Established in 1993, Keystone has its field base in Kotagiri, Nilgiris District, Tamil Nadu, which forms part of India’s Western Ghats. Snehlata’s areas of interest include conservation and development strategies for NTFPs in the Nilgiri Biosphere Reserve, food security and nutrition amongst indigenous communities, and land rights issues. She manages Keystone’s Community Wellbeing and Networks portfolio, including a small grants facility across India. She is also a founder member of the NTFP Exchange Programme – Asia.
Bert-Jan Ottens
Bert-Jan Ottens is founder and director of ProFound - Advisers In Development, a consultancy supporting sustainable trade initiatives in developing countries through market analyses, capacity building, policy development, public-private partnerships and matchmaking activities. He is also managing partner of www.BlueRhino.nl, which works on sustaining such initiatives through (micro/rural) finance mechanisms. Bert-Jan has a background in international economic relations, regional economic development and policy. He is a member of the Advisory Board of the Master's Programme 'International Development Studies' at the University of Utrecht, and served on the FairWild Board from 2010 to 2019.
Alex Parker
Alex Parker is a marketing and brand building entrepreneur, currently running The Organic Spirits Co. He is passionate about brands and in particular the difference that fair, organic and sustainable supply can make both to taste and the environment. With prior experience in telecoms and as the owner of an agency providing marketing services to leading spirits brands, since 2000 Alex has been working with his father in a family-owned business to launch the world’s first Organic Spirit – Juniper Green Gin – including development of FairWild supply chains. The Organic Spirits Co. brands are sold in 30 countries.
Jayant Sarnaik
Jayant Sarnaik is a founding member and joint Director of Applied Environmental Research Foundation (AERF), a conservation NGO based in Pune, India. He has over 18 years of on-the-ground experience in high priority biodiversity sites such as the Western Ghats. His particular interests lie in making conservation socially sustainable and economically viable – an aim that led him to set up the FairWild-certified operation Nature Connect, the first such enterprise in India.
Dr. Uwe Schippmann
Dr. Uwe Schippmann was Head of the Plant Conservation Department of the German Federal Agency for Nature Conservation (BfN) until retirement in 2019. In this role he was head of Germany's CITES Scientific Authority for plants, and coordinated the publication of German national red lists for plants. In 1994, Uwe co-founded the IUCN-SSC Medicinal Plant Specialist Group and chaired the group for several years. He now works as a consultant, focusing on the sustainable use, conservation and trade of medicinal and aromatic plants (MAPs); vulnerability analysis of MAP species; and CITES capacity building. He maintains MAPROW, an offline database on MAP taxa with currently some 28,000 species entries.
Suelma Ribeiro Silva
Suelma Ribeiro Silva has a PhD in Ecology from the University of Brasilia (2007) and post-doctorates from the University of North Carolina, USA (2011-2012) and Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, UK (2013). Her experience is in neotropical biodiversity with a focus on applied ecology, the conservation and recovery of rare and endangered plants, and the sustainable use of medicinal plants. She has coordinated Brazil-Italy bilateral cooperation projects (2003-2019) and national action plans for plant conservation. Suelma is a member of the IUCN-SSC Medicinal Plant Specialist Group. She is based at Brazil's Center for Biodiversity Assessment and Research and Conservation of the Cerrado - ICMBio (2009 - present).
Tamara ticktin
Tamara Ticktin is a professor of Botany at the University of Hawaiʿi at Mānoa. For the past 20 years, Tamara and her students have carried out collaborative research on the sustainable harvest and conservation of wild harvested plants from across the globe.