Speaker

Mr. Rene Kaam

Rene Kaam is a holder of Dipl. Engineering in Wood Science Engineering from Beijing Forestry University in China, and a graduate in MSc. in Forest Science (International Forestry) from Albert Ludwig University of Freiburg (UniFrei). Rene has experience on forest policy in Cameroon where he extensively researched on illegal logging in Cameroon, analysing the influence of instrumental, normative and context specific factors on law compliance by forest loggers in Cameroon. He also served as a consultant for the China-Africa (including: Cameroon, Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Mozambique and Uganda) Forest Governance Project lead by International Institute for Environment and Development (IIED). Rene also has experience in international standards development, quality assessment and certification. He leads INBAR’s work on bamboo and rattan (B&R) standardization at ISO where he convenes working group and oversees B&R international standards development. Prior to joining INBAR, he assumed many international positions including to serve as a research assistant at the Forest Research Institute of Baden-Württemberg (FVA Freiburg) in Germany, as a lecturer and research assistant at the Faculty of Environment and Natural resources of UniFrei. Rene also worked as a Foreign Diplomat for his country serving at the Embassy of the Republic of Cameroon to China.