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ESG series webinar presented by CFA Institute, ZSL SPOTT, and CFA Society Singapore


Webinar Presentation: Timber, Pulp, and ESG Risk

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Overview

The fight against climate change will not be won without addressing deforestation. Keeping tropical forests standing could provide up to 30% of the mitigation needed to combat climate change.

The latest SPOTT assessment of 100 of the most significant tropical timber and pulp companies, published by conservation charity ZSL, shows that:

  • Over half (54%) do not publicly commit to protect biodiversity (49/90 companies)
  • 44% have yet to publicly commit to zero-deforestation

Investors are showing an increased concern for the social impacts of deforestation and how it can affect local communities and indigenous peoples, who depend on forests for their livelihoods. This means that the companies in the timber and pulp sector that do not protect our forest resources may be exposed to financial and reputational risk. An increasing number of financial institutions and major brands are adopting commitments to address deforestation in their portfolios and supply chains, but more action is needed.

This webinar, hosted by the CFA Institute in collaboration with ZSL SPOTT helps financial practitioners understand the main ESG risks posed by the timber and pulp industry. The speakers discuss the challenges and opportunities they meet in the implementation of sustainable planting and forest management practices.

Speakers:

  • Charlie Hammans, Forestry TechnicalAdvisor, Zoological Society of London
  • Fook Leong Chan, CFA, Executive Director, Advocacy, CFA Society Singapore
  • Ashkan Rahmati, Head of Corporate Development and Strategy, Woodbois
  • Clara Melot, SPOTT Engagement and Impact Manager, Zoological Society of London
  • Alan Lok, CFA, Director, Ethics Education and Professional Standards, Asia-Pacific, CFA Institute

Watch the Webinar

Duration: 1 hr 3 min.

Recorded: 1 August 2020.

Presenters

Charlie Hammans
Charlie Hammans

Charlie Hammans leads ZSL’s SPOTT Timber and pulp workstream as the Forestry Technical Advisor, managing activities across Cameroon, Gabon, Republic of Congo, China, and Indonesia. Charlie joined ZSL in the summer of 2019 in the Palm Oil team before transitioning to the forestry team. Before joining ZSL, Charlie worked with various human rights initiatives, with a focus on securing land rights for indigenous peoples. His most recent role was as a Project Officer for the Central African Republic and Republic of Congo at Forest Peoples Programme. He has a BA in History and French from the University of Bristol, and an MA in Human Rights from University College London. Charlie speaks English, French, Spanish and Portuguese.

Fook Leong Chan
Fook Leong Chan CFA

Mr Chan Fook Leong, CFA is responsible for ethics education in CFA Society Singapore. He puts together ethical courses for practitioners based on the CFA Institute Code of Ethics and Standards of Professional Conduct. He also conducts training on ethics for financial institutions and writes on ethical issues for the CFA Singapore Insights Column in the Business Times.

In his current role, Mr Chan is also involved in thought leadership projects, sector analysis, investor education and protection, undergraduate outreach on ethics and issues relating to ESG and market integrity. He is also the representative in Singapore for Asia Pacific Research Exchange (ARX), a dedicated repository for Asia Pacific specific research and materials. Prior to joining CFA Society Singapore, Mr Chan co-authored a market manipulation research report on Singapore-listed companies

Ashkan Rahmati
Ashkan Rahmati

Ashkan is the Head of Corporate Development and Strategy at Woodbois and is part of the overall management team for Woodbois. Ashkan has c.10 years of private equity, investment and corporate development experience in the African and Middle Eastern markets. Prior to Woodbois, Ashkan worked in the private equity space in Iran with Griffon Capital and prior to Griffon was part of the Private Equity team at CDC Group managing and making investments across Africa and South Asia with a particular focus in the Agri-Forestry space.

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Clara Melot

Clara Melot joined ZSL in 2016 as Sustainable Finance Specialist. Her role within the Zoological Society of London focuses on financial sector capacity building and engagement on business and biodiversity issues. Clara has an MA in Marketing and Advertising from La Sorbonne University, through which she gained experience in the corporate partnerships department of WWF-France. She then obtained an MSc in Environmental Policy and Regulation from the London School of Economics and went on to join the Climate and Forests team at ClientEarth where she spent three years working on FCDO funded projects under "Forest Governance, Markets and Climate" grants.

Alan Lok
Alan Lok CFA

Dr Lok is responsible for nurturing ethics trainers, producing ethics bite-size media as well as facilitating member societies to promote ethical behavior in their local capital markets. In his role, Dr Lok works with member societies to advance awareness and adoption of CFA Institute ethics and standards, as well as policy positions on ethical conduct and culture related issues. This involves outreach to local stakeholders, including the industry, financial regulator, and the public across the APAC markets. Dr Lok also manages ethics related content and events together with societies leaders as well as facilitating their outreach activities on the Asia-Pacific Research Exchange (ARX) post publication.
Dr Lok joined CFA Institute in February 2014 as the Director of Capital Markets Policy in the Standards & Advocacy Division (APAC) before moving to the role of Director, Society Advocacy Engagement (APAC) in January 2017. In that role, Dr Lok has built up close relationships with society leaders and volunteers in the APAC region. Dr Lok was also responsible for directing the establishment of the Asia-Pacific Research Exchange (ARX). Over the years, he co-authored two monographs on portfolio pumping and market manipulation, submitted numerous regulatory consultation papers, written many blogs & articles and supported the Singapore Society in their Industry Research series in the Singapore Business Times.
During the decade prior to joining CFA Institute, Dr Lok was the senior investment manager of a Chinese solar-energy conglomerate and worked as both a buy and sell-side research analyst in Singapore. Dr Lok also served as the Adjunct head of two modules in Nanyang Technological University (南阳理工学院) as well as the module leaders for various universities in Hong Kong SAR, Mainland China, and Singapore.
Dr Lok graduated with a degree in Electrical & Electronic Engineering from the Nanyang Technological University in Singapore in 2003. Subsequently, he went on to read his MBA at the University of Manchester in 2013. He obtained the FRM certification from the Global Association of Risk Professionals in 2007 and was subsequently awarded the CFA certification from the CFA Institute in 2008. Dr Lok was recently awarded a doctorate degree from the University of Middlesex, London in 2021. His latest publication was a co-authorship with ACCA entitled “21 Sector Analysis: A Questioning Framework for Investors”.

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