CB Peer Reviewers

A registered professional forester with the Ordre des ingénieurs forestiers du Québec (OIFQ), Nicolas has specialised in forest management and chain of custody certification since the mid 1990s. He is the CEO of INCOS Strategies founded in 2005.

Nicolas has acquired in-depth knowledge of the main forest certification schemes by participating as an auditor, by offering consulting services and by sitting on various standard development committees. He is currently a member of the Working Body appointed to develop Regional Risk Assessments (RRAs), according to the SBP RRA Procedure, for the provinces of Quebec, British Columbia, New Brunswick and Nova Scotia in Canada. He is also participating at different levels in the ongoing SBP Standards Development Process.

Nicolas is a certified lead auditor for the FSC, PEFC 2002:2020 and ISO 14000 programs and a certified SBP auditor. He has participated in certification audits in British Columbia, Alberta, Ontario, Quebec, New Brunswick and Nova Scotia. More recently, he participated in the assessments of forest carbon projects certified under the Verified Carbon Standard (VCS).

He supports organisations in Canada and the United States throughout the forest value chain to move towards or to maintain forest management and chain of custody certification programs. He develops and implements practical tools for certificate holders enabling them to efficiently comply with certification requirements and regulations in the field and in the processing facilities. He also has international experience in Honduras and Nicaragua, Central America and Mexico with the Michoacán Monarch Butterfly Model Forest.

Kathryn (Katie) is a forester by training and has worked on development and forest management issues in a range of roles. With a consulting firm, Kathryn was a member of the environmental services department where her work included natural resource inventories, comprehensive planning, environmental impact assessments and the use of Geographic Information Systems (GIS). While working for the Community Forestry Resource Center, Kathryn developed and managed a group certification project for family forests and worked to increase local capacity to provide forest management and marketing services that are compatible with certification standards.

Kathryn is also an experienced forest certification lead auditor. Kathryn has been a leader within the forestry community in the Upper Midwest through her service as Chair of the Minnesota Society of American Foresters and her appointment to the Minnesota Forest Resources Council. Kathryn served as a member of the Advisory Board for the Blandin Foundation’s Vital Forests/Vital Communities Initiative, and currently serves on the Minnesota DNR’s Stewardship Committee, Minnesota’s Forests for the Future Committee, and the Woodlands Committee for the American Forest Foundation. She is a past-member of the Board of Directors for the Minnesota Environmental Partnership, Renewing the Countryside and the College of Food, Agricultural and Natural Resource Sciences Alumni Society. She is a current Board Member of the Sustainable Furnishings Council and the Forest Guild. In 2011, Kathryn joined the NSF Joint Committee on Dimensional Stone Sustainability. In 2013, Kathryn was named to the SFI External Review Panel with a term through to 30 June 2016. Kathryn has a B.S. in Forest Resources from the University of Minnesota, College of Natural Resources and also studied at the College of Saint Benedict in St. Joseph, MN and Sheldon Jackson College in Sitka, Alaska.

Sarah has been working with voluntary sustainability standards since 2004. Since 2020, she has enjoyed working as an independent consultant (dba EcoLogic Consulting). She reviews, drafts and edits standards and other normative documents for several standard-setting organisations. As a consultant, Sarah has worked with global companies and NGOs to help them understand certification requirements and to develop and implement circularity and net-zero roadmaps.

Sarah is currently the Chairperson of the FSC Policy and Standards Committee, and an Associate with Dovetail Partners contributing to reports and publications.

From 2007-2020, Sarah worked for SCS Global Services, based in Emeryville, California. Her work there was focused on the responsible forest products certification programs, including FSC, PEFC, SFI, and SBP. Sarah’s contributions included interpreting policies and standards, CoC auditing and report review, developing and overseeing training for staff and auditors, and managing a global network of affiliate offices conducting Chain of Custody audits for over 3,500 clients around the world.

From 2004-2007, Sarah worked for FSC IC in Bonn, supporting standard development processes, drafting standards and advice notes, and developing internal quality control systems.

Sarah has a bachelor’s degree in Biological Science from the University of Guelph, Ontario, Canada, with an emphasis on forest ecology, and is pursuing an MBA in Sustainability Leadership.

Asko has over 18 years’ experience in the timber sector, and is currently is currently Development Manager in a forestry company. He has worked across the Estonian Environmental Board, a Certification Body and in private forestry company, with roles including Forestry Specialist, Auditor (FSC (FM, COC), PEFC (CoC) and SBP) with country-level responsibility, and Deputy of Traceability Department and Senior Assurance Lead.

Asko has working experience of multiple countries, including Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Norway, Germany, Belgium, Denmark and Northern Ireland.

Asko has a BSc in Timber Industry and MSc in Forest Management from the Estonian University of Life Sciences.

Ciara is a professional forester with a global perspective. Her expertise spans diverse eco-regions in both northern and southern hemispheres, providing her with a solid perspective on forestry and supply chain challenges and opportunities.

Ciara’s extensive experience in forest certification audits, including FSC, PEFC, SFI, ISCC and SBP, underscores her dedication to ensuring forests are managed in a way that benefits both people and the planet. She has conducted over 200 forestry/chain of custody audits and managed over 4,000 certificates globally, demonstrating her ability to navigate complex certification processes and drive positive change in the forestry sector.

Throughout her career, Ciara has held key leadership positions in prominent Certification Bodies, including SCS Global Services (2015-2021), Preferred by Nature (2022), and Verra (2023-2024), where she served as the Director of Natural Climate Solutions. In this role, she played a crucial part in shaping the voluntary carbon market and promoting nature-based solutions to climate change.

Now, as the founder of SilvaCert, Ciara leverages her wealth of experience to provide expert consultancy services across the forest, carbon, and biomass certification sectors.

Ciara holds a BSc (Hons) in Agroforestry, which combined with an ongoing MSc in Tropical Forestry, further strengthens her comprehensive understanding of forest ecosystems and their sustainable management.

Jeremy is a Registered Professional Forester in Ontario, Canada and has consulted since 1987. Initially specialising in wood supply analysis and forest modelling, and developing and assessing criteria and indicators of sustainable development, he began forest auditing in 1999.  He has undertaken over 50 forest sustainability and compliance audits in forests across Ontario, more than halfas the lead auditor. Jeremy has long been active with FSC, serving as a technical writer for the 2004 Canadian National BorealStandard, leading part of the centralised national risk assessment for controlled wood in Canada (2016) for FSC International and most recently studying the impact of Intact Forest Landscape protection for FSC Canada. Jeremy is also an FSC auditor and has participated in numerous assessments and annual audits.

In the carbon space since 1999, Jeremy has been involved in the development of three forest carbon protocols, developed project description documents for afforestation projects, been a verifier, and undertaken reviews and analyses of different forest carbon protocols and risks of reversal. Since 2018, Jeremy has been a core member of the team developing SBP Regional Risk Assessments for British Columbia, New Brunswick, and most recently, Nova Scotia.  Jeremy also led the preparation of a Catchment Area Analysis for two pellet mills in Burns Lake and Houston, B.C.

Jeremy has also worked with and advised a number of First Nations and is currently an advisor and trainer for the Métis Nation of Ontario.  For ten years, Jeremy served on the Board of Directors of the Silver Taiga Foundation, which managed the model forest program for the Komi Model Forest, in Russia.  Between 2009 and 2014, he was chair of the Board. Jeremy earned a BScF from the Faculty of Forestry, University of Toronto, in 1979 and a PhD in Forest Economics from the same institute in 1986.