Abraham Guillen is a leading sustainable forestry management expert with more than 35 years of experience in sustainable forestry management with a demonstrated track record of building capacity and forging partnerships between the private sector, government, communities, and civil society to achieve sustainable outcomes. Abraham’s portfolio includes managing forestry, forest policy and governance, natural resource management, livelihoods, carbon payment for forest environmental services (PFES), and land and resource rights projects for donors.

Abraham currently serves in Vietnam as the Chief of Party of the Sustainable Forest Management Activity, funded by the U.S. Agency for International Development, aimed at: reducing carbon emissions from natural forest conversion and forest degradation; increasing carbon sequestration through better management of plantation forests; improving forest policy framework and enforcement; and improving the productivity of natural production forests. Project activities are helping to reduce carbon emissions by promoting sustainable practices in community forestry, developing wood and non-timber forest product value chains, updating forest policy and law enforcement, implementing PFES, and developing and implementing carbon PFES in seven provinces of Vietnam.

Abraham is an expert in forestry certification under the Forest Stewardship Council and forest licensing under the Forest Law Enforcement, Governance, and Trade (FLEGT) Action Plan, promoted by the European Union, and has experience operating in areas of community conflict over land rights, including Afghanistan and Colombia, where he developed market linkages for agricultural and forestry value chains.

Before his current position, Abraham served as Team Leader in Liberia for the Voluntary Partnership Agreement Support Unit under the Forest Law Enforcement, Governance, and Trade Action Plan (FLEGT) Action Plan, funded by the European Union and the U.K. Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office.

Abraham also has extensive experience working in the private sector as President and Co-founder of Lanier Architectural Woodwork in Georgia; co-investor and Vice President of Vermont Plywood in Vermont; and managing sawmills, logging services, and furniture part factories, among others.

• M.A., international marketing, Universidad Nur, Bolivia
• M.A., education, Framingham State University
• M.B.A., Universidad Nacional Autónoma de Honduras
• B.S., forest products, University of Idaho
• Dasonomo, forest management, ESNACIFOR, Honduras