Experts & Staff

Robert Winterbottom is the Director of WRI’s Ecosystem Services Initiative and Deputy Director of the People and Ecosystems Program. The Mainstreaming Ecosystem Services team is working with governments, companies, development agencies, communities and other partners to develop ecosystem-based strategies, policies and investments that reduce ecosystem degradation and contribute to sustainable economic development.

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Over the past twenty five years, Bob worked as a technical advisor to support the implementation of USAID funded development projects in Burkina Faso, Rwanda, Niger, Senegal and Bangladesh. He contributed to the assessment of lessons learned from investments in environmental and natural resource management, and to the development of more effective program approaches integrating governance and poverty reduction with environmental management.

After serving as a Peace Corps volunteer in a community reforestation program in Burkina Faso, and doing fieldwork for The Nature Conservancy in Maine, Bob served as an Ecologist with the Interstate Committee for Drought Control in the Sahel. He contributed to the first World Resources Report, the launching of the Tropical Forestry Action Plan, and served as the first Director of the Forestry and Land Use program of WRI. More recently, Bob has been assessing needs and opportunities for climate change adaptation, REDD+ investments and payments for ecosystems services.

Bob earned a MFS in Natural Resources Management from the School of Forestry and Environmental Studies of Yale University, and has a BA in Geography from Dartmouth College.