About Foundation
Mikhail Karpachevsky
Chairman of the Foundation Coordination Council since 2019
In 1993 he graduated from the Moscow State University Soil Science Department, where he defended the dissertation on the topic “Soil properties altering owing to the successional dynamics of the taiga ecosystems after fires and cuttings” in 1996.
From 1997 to 2011 he worked in the Biodiversity Conservation Centre (BCC) in the position of the BCC Forest Program manager.
From 2011 to 2018 he worked in the Non-profit Partnership “Transparent World”, whehe he dealt with issues of forest conservation and sustainable forest management.
Mikhail Karpachevsky is one of the initiators of the voluntary forest certification according to the FSC system in Russia. From 2002 to 2008 he was the Chairman of the Russian National FSC Working Group.
He is a member of the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC), leading expert of the Technical Committee of the FSC National Working Group, engaged in the development of the National standards of the FSC certification.
Currently, he is an employee of FSC Russia.
Natalia Sedusova
Member of the Silver Taiga Foundation Coordination Council since 2013.
She was born in Syktyvkar, obtained a higher education in the Komi State Pedagogical Institute for the specialty “English and German language teacher”.
In 2001-2002 she took an English course at advanced level in the British council (CAE).
In 1999-2004 she worked as a translator and training-coach in different organizations and projects in Moscow.
Since 2004 she has been the Head of the International Relations Department of the Syktyvkar Forest Institute.
In 2003 -2006 N. Sedusova was a coordinator of the international TEMPUS -TACIS project “Development and improvement of vocational teacher system for environmental forestry in high education institutions in Northwest Russia”.
In 2005-2008 she took an active part in the Finish-Russian program on “Development of sustainable forest management and conservation of biodiversity in North-West Russia.
In 2006-2010 N. Sedusova was a coordinator of the Syktyvkar Forest Institute working group on the Russian-Swedish cooperation program in forestry in the courses: “Accessibility of Forest recourses and development of Forest roads network” and “Sustainable Forest Management”.
N. Sedusova is an organizer and participant of numerous international seminars and conferences on sustainable forest management and rational use of natural resources.
Marcelo Levi
Member of the Foundation Coordination Council since 2015.
Marcelo is a Forest Engineer from the University of La Plata, Argentina, and completed a Masters in Environmental Studies at York University, after he moved to Canada. He has a multidisciplinary background covering both the technical and the social aspects of forestry. Earlier in his career, Marcelo specialized in forest inventory, growth & yield working in plantation in North and Central Argentina. His interest shifted to forest policy and public involvement in forest management, and worked on forest certification ever since. He worked for the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) Canada as Director of Standards Program for almost 8 years. After he left FSC, he founded Responsible Forestry Solutions (RFS), an international forestry consulting firm in partnership with Nick Moss Gillespie.
Marcelo is an FSC/PEFC Lead Auditor for both Forest Management and Chain of Custody having conducted FSC audits in Canada, United States and in many countries in Latin America. He also conducted legality audits (under SGS’ Timber legality Verification and Traceability standard), and audits of North American wood pellets producers exporting to Europe under the European Union Renewable Energy Directives.
He lead projects assessing forest regulations, and control and enforcement mechanisms in Ecuador and Colombia, and was a member of multi-disciplinary teams conducting program evaluations of large international programs (International Model Forest Network, The Amazon Alternative). Marcelo is a member of the High Conservation Value (HCV) Resource Network Technical Panel and a peer reviewer. He lead studies of the use of the HCV concept in North America (for WWF Canada) and worked with the HCV-RN to expand the use of the HCV concept in other sectors (principally soy).
Kulikova Elena
Member of the Foundation Coordination Council since 2019.
She graduated from the Moscow Forestry Institute (later – Moscow State Forest University), which she graduated in 1980 with a degree in forestry engineering. In 1986 she defended her thesis and has a PhD in biological sciences, specializing in Ecology and Entomology.
From 1986 to 1997 she worked as an assistant professor of the Department of Ecology and Forest Protection at Moscow State Forest University.
From 1998 to 2002, she worked in federal executive bodies. First, in the Federal Forestry Service, and then in the Ministry of Natural Resources of the Russian Federation in units related to international cooperation in forestry.
From 2002 to 2013, she worked at the World Wildlife Fund (WWF Russia), first as a project coordinator, and then as the head of the Forest Program, dealing with issues of ensuring sustainable forest management, preventing illegal logging, promoting voluntary forest certification, preserving high conservation value forests and other
From 2014 to 2019, she worked as a leading expert at the European Forest Institute (Finland) as part of international cooperation projects with Russia on forest science.
Since mid-2019 – an independent expert.