Brian Schaap

REDDX Program Senior Associate, Forest Trends Association

Biography

Brian is an Associate with the Forest Trade and Finance Program's REDD+ Expenditure Tracking Initiative (REDDX), working primarily with the project's African and Asian country partners to identify and report international and national REDD+ financing arrangements.

As a graduate student at the University of Michigan prior to joining Forest Trends, Brian collaborated with a team of students and professors in the publication of a report entitled "Community Forest Management and REDD+", commissioned by the World Bank's Program on Forests (PROFOR). His thesis research investigated the national policies and localized impacts of the REDD+ pilot process in Tanzania, relying on interviews with forest dependent communities, national government officials, and international donors. Brian also partnered with researchers from the Climate Economics Chair (Paris) and the French Agricultural Research Centre for International Development (CIRAD) in the creation of a comprehensive database of global REDD+ projects, aiming to enable more rigorous analysis of the emerging global REDD+ landscape.

Before beginning his graduate studies, Brian worked for an international relief and development organization as an agricultural project technician in rural Tanzania, and also served as an AmeriCorps volunteer assisting refugees recently resettled to the U.S. Brian earned a Bachelor of Science degree from Calvin College, and a Masters of Environmental Policy from the University of Michigan's School of Natural Resources and Environment.