On 17 April 2025, UNU will host “Sustainable Tropical Forestry as a Nature-based Solution to Climate Change Resilience, Mitigation and Adaptation”, a conversation with Ms. Sheam Satkuru, Executive Director of the International Tropical Timber Organization. This event will start at 18:30 in the 2F Reception Hall at UNU Headquarters in Tokyo.
Tropical forests hold the potential to sequester carbon dioxide while nurturing biodiversity and contributing to carbon-neutral and circular bio-economies. The food, income, environmental services and resources that tropical forests provide are indispensable for many communities across the world, especially forest-dependent Indigenous Peoples and local communities.
Tropical forests produce wood and non-wood forest products, protect soil and water, filter the air, prevent land degradation and desertification, and reduce the risk of natural disasters such as floods and droughts. As tropical forests offer a vital pathway toward a climate-resilient future, it is imperative we ensure their conservation.
Ms. Sheam Satkuru will join UNU Rector Tshilidzi Marwala to discuss solutions to global challenges, focusing on climate change resilience, mitigation and adaptation. What lessons can we learn from sustainably managed tropical forests? How do we incentivize forest conservation in global policymaking?
The UNU Conversation Series aims to foster audience participation; you are encouraged to engage with the speakers during the conversation and at the reception that will follow, where all event attendees are invited to enjoy hors d’oeuvres and drinks while exchanging ideas and making new contacts.
Please note that this event will be in English. Advance registration (by 16 April at 15:00) is required. Please click on the REGISTER button above to access the online registration page.
Please be prepared to present identification at check-in.
About the speaker
Ms. Sheam Satkuru is the Executive Director of the International Tropical Timber Organization (ITTO). She is the first woman to hold this position and has been serving since her appointment in 2021. Her current objectives are to grow financial and policy support for the implementation of sustainable forest management (SFM) in the tropics, enhance international collaboration and address market access, trade regulations and international policies for tropical forests and products. She is actively promoting sustainable production and consumption of tropical forest products in line with the Sustainable Development Goals, the United Nations Strategic Plan on Forests, and other internationally adopted objectives.
Ms. Satkuru was previously the ITTO’s Director of Operations, and contributed to organizational efforts towards SFM in the tropics, while expanding and diversifying the trade in tropical wood products from sustainably managed and legally harvested forests. She has over 30 years of experience in tropical forest policies and in the wood products industry, and specializes in international trade, with strong skills in legal and policy analysis related to international affairs, communications, public affairs and outreach. Prior to her work at the ITTO, she was the Regional Director for Europe at the Malaysian Timber Council.
A skilled and experienced international negotiator, Ms. Satkuru holds a Master's Degree in Corporate and Commercial Law from Kings College, University of London and is a Barrister-at-Law, Inner Temple, London.
