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External Expert Advisory Board

External Expert
Advisory Board

The External Expert Advisory Board (EEAB) of SMURF brings together leading experts in sustainable forest management, multifunctional forestry, ecosystem services, and forest policy. Its primary role is to provide independent strategic guidance and technical advice to ensure that the project addresses the complex socio-economic, environmental, and policy challenges faced by European forests.

Board Members

Brett Butler

Research Forester at USDA Forest Service, Northern Research Station

Dr. Brett Butler is a national and international expert on forest ownership who has authored over 100 articles and reports on this subject. As part of the U.S. Forest Service, Northern Research Station, Forest Inventory and Analysis program, he coordinates the National Woodland Owner Survey and co-directs the Family Forest Research Center, a joint project with the University of Massachusetts. In addition, he oversees the Timber Products Output survey for the Northern U.S. He earned his B.S from the University of Connecticut and his Ph.D. from Oregon State University. He lives in Amherst, Massachusetts USA.

United States

Diana Lukmine

Senior Researcher at Lithuanian Research Centre for Agriculture and Forestry

She works as a Senior Researcher at the Institute of Forestry, Lithuanian Research Centre for Agriculture and Forestry (LAMMC). Her research focuses on the social and economic aspects of forestry
management (both public and private), as well as economic analysis and sustainability studies. 

With a background in Social Sciences (Economics), her expertise and research interests include evaluating the
sustainability of forest management, analysing forest policy processes and governance, exploring innovations in the forestry sector, and examining forest ownership types and owner behaviour. 

She is aco-author of nine books or book chapters, has published over 30 articles in peer-reviewed journals, delivered more than 25 oral presentations at international and local conferences, and contributed to
over 30 applied research projects and 11 international projects.

Lithuania

Miguel Freitas

Professor at University of Algarve

Graduate in Agricultural Engineering from the University of Évora and Master in “Agro-food Management”, certified by the École National Superieur Agronomique de Montpellier, in France.

Regional Director of Agriculture for the Algarve, General Director of Rural Development and President of the National Monitoring Committee for the LEADER II Community Initiative between 1998 and 2000.

Vice-President of the Algarve Region Coordination Committee, Manager of the Revitalization Program for Low Density Areas in the Algarve Region of PROALGARVE, Manager of the INTERREG III Program – Algarve, Alentejo, Andalusia and Vice-President of the Group of Agriculture of the Intra-Mediterranean Commission of the Conference of Peripheral Maritime Regions, between 2000 and 2003.

Deputy to the Assembly of the Republic in the X, XI and XII Legislatures, on the Agriculture, Rural Development and Maritime Committee, between 2006 and 2015. He was a member of the World Bank Parliamentary Network in 2010 and 2011.
REPER – Portuguese Representation at the European Union as Agriculture and Maritime Coordinator between 2007 and 2009, having chaired the European Union’s Special Agriculture Committee during Portugal’s Presidency of the European Union in the second half of 2007.

1st Executive Secretary of AMAL – Algarve Municipalities Association in 2016 and 2017.

Secretary of State for Forests and Rural Development of the XXI Constitutional Government, between July 2017 and October 2019.

Portugal

Andrés Espejo

Expert on Climate Change at World Bank

Andrés Espejo, a forest and natural resource management engineer by training, works for the World Bank’s Climate Change Group as Program Manager for the Forest Carbon Partnership Facility (FCPF) and as technical lead of the Natural Climate Solutions (NCS) pillar of the future multi-donor trust fund Scaling Climate Action by Lowering Emissions (SCALE). 

Andres has experience in the implementation and operationalization of measurement, reporting and verification (MRV) processes, the creation of GHG standards, carbon markets and methodological aspects under the WB’s land use climate funds. 

Prior to joining the Bank, he worked in both compliance and voluntary markets in the development and certification of offset projects mainly in the Agriculture, Forestry, and Other Land Use (AFOLU) sector, and in the biomass and pulp and paper sector in Europe and Africa.

United States

Roland de Lary

General Director at Le Centre national de la propriété forestière​

Agronomist and forestry engineer Roland de Lary managed several forestry entities before taking over the management of the CNPF. He was notably director of cooperatives, technical director of a chamber of commerce, regional director of the CNPF in New Aquitaine.

Roland de Lary has participated in numerous cooperation projects in Europe and created a service dedicated to carbon offsetting within the CNPF.

The CNPF approves sustainable management documents for French private forests. It advises all owners. One of its mission is also to group the small property into larger management units. For this, a team of 470 technicians, engineers and administrative staff is available.
The Institute for Forestry Development is the R&D department of the CNPF.

Roland de Lary manages the whole on behalf of a board of administrators made up of forest owners and a representative of the Ministry.

France

Marko Maki-Hakola

Forest director at MKT

Marko Mäki-Hakola MSc (biol), MSocSc(econ), forest director at MTK. My responsibility areas include for example forest policy in Finland and EU, markets for different forest products and advisory services.

I’ve worked 20 years in forest owners organisation in different positions. Currently I lead forest unit with over 20 experts who are lobbying for good business environment for forest owners and developing also new tools for them. My organisation has almost 300 000 members.
I am also chairman in the working party of forests in COPA COGECA and in that we heavily involved also European level forest topics.

I am also a forest owner so I also understand the daily life of forest owners.

Finland

Ratislav Kulek

Rastislav Sulek, Assoc. prof. PhD.

Rastislav Šulek, a graduate of the Faculty of Forestry of the Technical University of Zvolen (TUZVO) and the Faculty of Law of Comenius University, is an associate professor at the Department of Forest Economics and Policy of the TUZVO, where his teaching activities focus on management theory and legal aspects of the forest sector. 

Within his scientific research activities, he focuses on the issues of economic and legal conditions of markets in forestry and the provision of forest ecosystem services and has so far been the principal investigator or co-investigator of two dozen scientific research projects. He is the author of more than a hundred scientific papers and several dozen professional papers in the field of forest economics and forest law. 

He presented the results of his scientific work at lecture stays and scientific events in thirty countries on four continents. He also works as a long-time international expert in the field of forestry and environmental legislation. He is the deputy coordinator of the IUFRO Unit 9.06.00 Forest law and environmental legislation and member if the IUFRO International Council.

In the past, he served as the vice-rector of the TUZVO and vice-chairman of its Board of Trustees. He is also a long-standing member of the Presidency of the Council of Higher Education of the Slovak Republic and chairman of its Legislative Commission. In March 2024, he was appointed the dean of the Faculty of Forestry of the TUZVO.

Slovakia

Anne Crespin

Administrator of Pro Silva / International projects coordinator of Forêt.Nature

I am specialized in international project management with the objective to enhance the implementation of close-to-nature forestry in Europe and to support public and private forest owners and managers in the transition of their practices.


Pro Silva : administrator since 2020.
In May 2025, we launched our new Startegy for 2030+ for the promotion and further implementation of close-to-nature forestry according to Pro Silva principles in Europe.
Forêt.Nature : international project manager since 2019 .
Some projects I coordinated in recently :
Askafor : adaptation of skills and knowledge of foresters for forest adaptation to climate change (promotion of close-to-nature forestry)
ForestMoocForChange : trilingual online training tool in Continuous cover forestry
TraineeForChange : intensive training in CCF on the territory of a natural park in Belgium
Iskfor and Iskforclim : Erasmus+ mobility projects

Belgium

Alessandra Stefani

President at National Cluster Foresta Legno

Italy