Nigel Sizer's Public Profile

About Me

Nigel Sizer joined Rare as Vice President in October, 2006.  He is responsible all operations in Asia and the Pacific, developing partnerships with small and large environmental groups, governments, business and international agencies to strengthen the commitment of communities to conservation.  This involves leading development of an entirely new program in China, consolidating efforts across Indonesia, and managing a team and budget that had tripled by late 2007.  Nigel also conceived and is now developing Community Carbon, a grassroots effort to link the poor with global carbon markets, in partnership with several carbon offsets companies and philanthropists, starting in Indonesia.  He also serves as lead advisor to former US President Bill Clinton and the Clinton Global Initiative on climate change and energy issues in Asia. Prior to Rare, Nigel worked at the United Nations Environment Program, based in Nairobi, Kenya, as Senior Programme Officer for Biodiversity, with a $200 million portfolio, responsible for the award of grants from the Global Environment Facility to assist governments, NGOs and others in the implementation of the Biodiversity Convention.  Before UNEP, he worked for five years with The Nature Conservancy as Director of the Forests Program for the Asia Pacific region, based in Jakarta, charged with developing new projects to abate threats to forests throughout Asia and the Pacific.  As part of this effort Nigel leveraged $20 million in private sector support for forest conservation efforts in Indonesia.

Before TNC, Nigel worked with the environment policy think tank, World Resources Institute, in Washington DC, for eight years.  His initial task was to create a program to promote conservation and sustainability in the Amazon Basin.  He went on to head up the group of experts working on forest issues and biodiversity all over the world, including in the Amazon and Andean countries, Congo Basin, Indonesia, China, Burma, Canada, and Russia. He has written widely about environmental issues, including for The New York Times, The Washington Post, The International Herald Tribune, The Guardian, The Journal of Commerce, The Jakarta Post and The Toronto Star, and has appeared on CNN, NBC, BBC TV, and many other TV and radio stations. 

Nigel spent three years as a field ecologist in the Brazilian Amazon sponsored by the Smithsonian Institution and the University of Cambridge, England.  He has Bachelors, Masters and Doctoral degrees in natural sciences and tropical forest ecology from King’s College, University of Cambridge, and has served on the boards of The Rainforest Foundation, the Amazon Alliance, the Global Forest Foundation, and the Andean Center for Sustainable Development, he founded and co-chaired The Forests Dialogue, and also helped establish and lead the Asia Forest Partnership.

Educational Credentials

Ph.D. Tropical Ecology M.A. and B.A. Natural Sciencies

I Knew I was a Conservationist When....

My grandfather took me fishing at the age of 5 and taught me about conserving the natural beauty of the countryside where we lived in England.

My Contributions