the restoration ecology team

The carbon balanced and tree-planting programmes are managed by the WLT restoration ecology team.

• Rebecca Absalom. Rebecca is Carbon Projects Officer and she manages the carbon offset calculations and emissions audits for everyone making use of the WLT Carbon Balanced programme.
• Roger Wilson. Roger is the restoration ecology team's technical expert and he has helped design this programme. He has a long history of working with the WLT, and was the first Manager of Programme for Belize's Rio Bravo Carbon Sequestration Pilot Project. He now works with WLT in designing and managing the field projects that deliver the offset and tree-planting commitments on the ground.
• Andrew Smiley. Andrew spent several months assisting WLT as a volunteer, helping set up the carbon monitoring systems, both in the UK and in Ecuador. He now undertakes short-term contracts for WLT as necessary, particularly in providing field project support.

Scientific support for the Carbon Balanced programme is supplied by:

• Prof. Renton Righelato. As well as being the Chairman of the Board of Trustees of WLT, Renton is a Visiting Research Fellow at the Environmental Systems Science Centre at the University of Reading. An industrial biologist by training he has a keen interest in conservation issues and has held a range of corporate and academic appointments. He advises WLT on the science underlying greenhouse gas emissions and their mitigation.
• Dr. Dominick Spracklen is a Research Fellow at the School of Earth and Environment at the University of Leeds. His work focuses on interactions between the atmosphere and biosphere such as the impacts of climate change on forest fires. He advises WLT on the scientific base of the Carbon Balanced programme. His particular input is in the processes of carbon sequestration and in carbon inventory and monitoring.

In addition, WLT runs an internship programme and, in collaboration with the University of East Anglia, a diploma course in conservation and project administration. Both interns and diploma students contribute in various ways to the restoration ecology work.