Dr Robert Nasi is the Chief Operating Officer of CIFOR-ICRAF and has been the Director General of the Center for International Forestry Research (CIFOR) since 2017, steering the organisation’s successful three-year merger process with World Agroforestry (ICRAF) and leveraging their combined expertise to harness the power of trees, forests and agroforestry landscapes to address the most pressing global challenges of our time.

He has been part of the organisation for more than 20 years, joining CIFOR in 1999 and holding several research and management positions, including principal scientist, biodiversity program leader, and program director.

Dr Nasi is a leading global expert on forests, and advocates for integrating social and biological science for better forest management, more sustainable livelihoods, and improved forest policies.

Born in 1959 in Nice, France, Dr Nasi graduated as a forest engineer from the French National Forestry School and earned a doctorate in ecology from the University of Paris Sud–Orsay. Since 1982, he has lived and travelled extensively across Africa, Asia, and the Pacific, undertaking research in ecology and tropical forest management. Dr Nasi is based at CIFOR’s Headquarters in Bogor Indonesia.

His research interests include the sustainable use of forest products, and multiple-use tropical forest management. His main disciplines are ecology, botany, biometrics, tropical forest management, and silviculture. He has authored or co-authored more than 300 scientific publications.