Dr. Ke Dong is a Senior Forest Program Officer at the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) China Liaison Office. She provides senior consultation to national and regional forestry and nature resources conservation and management. She also has practical knowledge and experience on China's conservation laws, regulations and policies through past involvements in numerous projects with the China's State Forestry Administration (SFA). During her 12-month Fellowship, Ke will examine Payment for Ecological Services (PES) as a way to balance out development with conservation objectives, and she will conduct a comparative study between China and the US to evaluate increasing international practices in PES. Her objective is to provide recommendations on improving PES efforts in China, particularly in the Beijing Miyun Reservoir watershed area, which is a key supplier of about 60-70% drinking water resources to the 17 million residents in Beijing City.

Dr. Sue Baker works for Forestry Tasmania as a researcher investigating biodiversity and variable retention silviculture. She is on a 12-month Fellowship offered jointly by the J.W. Gottstein Memorial Trust Fund and Forest & Wood Products Australia. She has a forestry degree from the University of Melbourne, and Honours and Ph.D. degree from the School of Zoology, University of Tasmania. Her research project at WFI will be on the topic: Variable Retention Silviculture: A comparison of biodiversity research and management practices between Tasmania, Australia, and the Pacific Northwest. Variable retention is a relatively new harvesting system that aims to retain biodiversity and structural elements from the mature unharvested forest for at least one rotation, in order to preserve environmental values associated with mature and structurally complex forests.

Jagdish Poudel is an environmental researcher for the non-profit organization Living Earth, Nepal. He consults regularly with executives from a variety of environmental fields to help create synergistic solutions to world problems, such as climate change, natural resources conservation, pollution control, and solid waste management. Prior to his current position, he created and led the Living Earth team at the national level. He also has knowledge and experience on Nepal's Community Forest Management Practices, Environmental Impact Assessment and geographic information systems. During his 12-month Fellowship, Mr. Poudel will examine the role of forest management practices in carbon sequestration and climate change. His objective is to learn about forest cover change due to sustainable forest management practice and the long-term socio-economic implications of management practices which aim to increase carbon sequestration. The experience and knowledge gained from his research will be used to undergo future research in Nepal.

Vijay Krishnan Kolinjivadi has recently completed a Masters in Environmental Policy and Regulation at the London School of Economics & Political Science (LSE). His background lies at the interface between conservation, ecology and sustainable development policy. He has worked in Singapore as director of the Conservation Education Programme with the Hemispheres Foundation. In 2008, he undertook an internship at the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) in Nairobi, Kenya facilitating the development of the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment Follow-up. During his 6-month Fellowship, Vijay will investigate the role of payments for ecosystem services (PES) schemes in bridging the gap between conservation and development. His objective is to examine the unique perspectives of PES stakeholders and practitioners in assessing opportunities and risks of investment in Oregon’s forest-based services, with broader application elsewhere.

Daisuke Tajima is an undergraduate student at the University of Keio in Fujisawa-City, Japan. He will start his senior year at the university this fall, earning his forestry degree. He came to WFI in early May to start a short 5-month Fellowship program focusing on forest recreation and education programs in Oregon. His family business is forestry in his home town of Hita-City, and he hopes to learn new tools and models to implement in his family's forest for the sustained livlihood and enjoyment of the land.

I-Chun Lu/Keck is an assistant researcher at the Botanical Garden Division of the Taiwan Forestry Research Institute (TFRI). With a Masters degree in Environmental Education from Taipei Municipal University of Education, she works as part of a team that manages a Nature Education Laboratory. Primary functions of the Nature Education Laboratory include: running nature education workshops, conducting environmental education research, publishing environmental research related documents and providing interpretive sign design. Her WFI research project title is ‘Natural Resource Environmental Education Methods used in the Northwest US: Implications for Taiwan’. She hopes to examine Environmental Education used at the WFI and Northwest US and incorporate her findings into TFRI environmental education methods used around Taiwan.

Vera Serrão has a Forest and Natural Resources Engineering degree from Technical University of Lisbon. She previously worked in a forest producers association in Lisbon, Portugal. She was involved in various projects there, including forest management planning in a national forest surrounding the southern Portuguese village of Mértola, as well as a municipal plan for forest fire defense. During her 6-month fellowship, Vera will research about post-fire management in PNW region. She wants to explore and study the techniques of post-fire forest management in the PNW so that it can serve as a helpful contribution in decision making regarding the management of forests in Portugal after devastating fires.