Andrew Heald is a professional forester and a Member of the Institute of Chartered Foresters. He has been involved in a wide range of sustainable forestry projects in Europe, South America and Africa. Andrew works for UPM, the world’s leading sustainable forestry, pulp and paper Company, the only European paper company listed in the Dow Jones Sustainability Index

In 2008 he was appointed UPM UK’s Head of Assurance, responsible for company compliance with ISO certification and FSC Chain of Custody; in addition to managing the UK's largest FSC Forest Management Group Scheme accounting for 45% of the privately owned certified forest in the UK.

In December 2010 Andrew was appointed Sustainable Plantations Manager, for UPM with global responsibility for all aspects of sustainability for UPM’s plantation projects. In the last three years Andrew has worked on existing and potential new project sites in Uruguay and Africa, and participated in conferences and workshops in Brazil, Korea and Malaysia. Current work includes a new UPM website called “Plantation Life” and managing UPM’s global Biodiversity Program Partnership with IUCN.

Andrew also lead’s UPM international stakeholder engagement, working with IUCN, World Business Council for Sustainable Devlopement and Forest Stewardship Coucil. Since 2010 Andrew has been a key participant in WWF’s New Generation Plantation Project.

Examples of projects he has been involved in:

Parallel testing of forest certification standards

A cooperation project with WWF and Det Norske Veritas testing seven forest certification

standards (FSC, PEFC, SFI and CSA) in forests managed by UPM in Canada, Finland and the UK.www.upm-kymmene.com/sustainableforestry

Coed Llandegla – Visitor Centre

Project manager - million pound project and is the first privately owned and managed mountain bike centre in the UK, attracting 200,000 visitors per annum. This project has attracted a number of national awards.  http://www.coedllandegla.com

Stump and Forest Residue Harvesting

Prepared industry wide best practice guidance for the sustainable harvesting of forest residues including stumps, and ensuring compliance withUKlegislation and FSC.

WWF - New Generation Plantation Project

Active participant developing framework and guidelines for the development and management of plantation projects - http://newgenerationplantations.com/index.html