José Roberto (Beto) Borges is the director of the Communities and Markets Program at Forest Trends. He has over 25 years of experience working with indigenous and other traditional forest communities to benefit from REDD+ and other economic incentives for rewarding their forest stewardship practices. A Brazilian national, Mr. Borges graduated from UC Berkeley in Natural Resource Management and has a MBA in Strategic Leadership focused on corporate social responsibility. He has worked in the philanthropic, private and NGO sectors creating economic opportunities for local communities throughout Latin America, leading innovative work on jurisdictional REDD+ in Acre, started the Surui Forest Carbon Project, Brazil, as well as pharmaceutical and cosmetic products development from indigenous IPR with companies like Shaman Pharmaceuticals and AVEDA.
