Background

Rachael Garrett is the Moran Professor of Conservation and Development at Cambridge University in the Department of Geography. She works to conserve biodiversity and improve the wellbeing of people living in tropical agricultural-forest frontiers. Her goals are to help end deforestation, restore tree cover on cleared areas, and foster economic transformations that enhance the value of healthy forests.

A large focus of her current work is on the effectiveness and equity of forest-focused corporate policies for soy, beef, cocoa, and oil palm supply chains in Brazil, West Africa, and Indonesia. This work is funded by an ERC Starting Grant, two Swiss National Science Foundation grants, and the Leventis Foundation. Other research includes unlocking restoration finance, equity-centered restoration, forest degradation in Brazil and the Caucasus, and scaling up agroforestry and other diversified and integrated agricultural systems.

Professor Garrett works closely with national agriculture and forestry agencies and with companies to advise them on their supply chain policies. She has degrees from Boston University, Columbia University, and Stanford University. She serves on the UN Science Panels on Voluntary Sustainability Standards and the UN Science Panel for the Amazon among other advisory roles. She is the Co-Chair of the Global Land Programme, a member of the Cambridge Conservation Initiative Council, and on the Science Steering Committee of the Global Food Security Centre at Cambridge. She is a fellow of Homerton College.