The Plan Vivo Foundation is a registered Scottish charity, set up to develop and oversee the Plan Vivo Standard and System and lobby for Plan Vivo principles.

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The Foundation’s charitable aims are:

• Relieving poverty in developing countries through engaging rural communities in sustainable land-use projects;
• Promoting environmental protection and improvement through biodiversity conservation and the restoration, protection and management of terrestrial ecosystems;
• Advancing education and building local capacity through the transfer of knowledge, skills and resources to developing countries;

The Plan Vivo Foundation has the competence and responsibility to do the following:

• Take all decisions on the registration and status of projects;
• Annually review projects and coordinate third-party validation and approve verifiers;
• Approve technical specifications and coordinate reviews by experts;
• Issue Plan Vivo Certificates in respect of ecosystem services generated by projects and record all Certificate Issuances in a registry;
• Review, update and develop the Plan Vivo Standard in consultation with stakeholders;
• Maintain and disseminate clear and up-to-date information about the Plan Vivo System, Standards and projects;
• Lobby for pro-poor, participatory approaches to forest management and land-use, where communities are involved in every stage of project design and delivery.

Board of Trustees

All amendments to the Standards must be approved by the Plan Vivo Foundation Board of Trustees. The Trustee’s expertise includes forest ecology and conservation, environmental management, international development, business administration, finance, climate change and environmental sustainability, bio-energy and project management. The Board of Trustees meets a minimum of four times per year.

Dorothy McIntosh

Dorothy joined the directors in 2007 and works developing climate change policy and projects at Mercy Corps; one of the biggest global humanitarian aid agencies. She previously was heavily involved in the development of international standards such as the Forestry Stewardship Council.

Ray Victurine

Ray leads the Wildlife Conservation Society’s conservation finance team, with a focus on creating market opportunities that contribute to conservation and sustainable development. Trained in natural resource economics, Ray has 20 years experience working in conservation and rural development, and has lived in Latin America and Africa.

Pauline Nantongo

Pauline is the Executive Director of ECOTRUST, the Environmental Conservation Trust of Uganda. Joining the Directors in 2007, Pauline has 12 years of experience in natural resource management and works with communities across Uganda in participaroty land-use initiatives. Pauline was previously director of NatureUganda.

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Jeremy Woods

Jeremy is a lecturer in bioenergy at Imperial College London, working on the interplay between development, land-use and the sustainable use of natural resources. He is a member of the Royal Society’s Working Group on Biofuels and recent work has included participation in developing the framework for an international bioenergy programme in collaboration with the UN-FAO and the International Energy Agency. He is also a Trustee of the Environmental Law Foundation.

Juan Andres Santelices

Juan Andres  is a Forest Engineer and for over 14 years has been working in the field of ethical trade, sustainable livelihoods and sustainable business development. He is currently working as an independent consultant with producer organisations in Latin America, and has previously worked with indigenous communities, producer organisations and  forestry enterprises in over 15 countries, in Asia, Oceania, South and Central America.

Technical Advisory Group

The Plan Vivo Technical Advisory Group (TAG) provides independent advice to the Foundation on scientific and technical aspects of the Standard and projects. TAG members are selected for their professional expertise in forestry, land-use activities and monitoring as well as carbon accounting.

The current Technical Advisory Group members can be dowloaded here.