Harnessing nature's wealth with strategic forestry management expertise.
Michael Henson
PARTNER
Michael has over 25 years of international forestry experience in both consultancy and line management roles. He has extensive experience in the management of both softwood and hardwood plantations, covering both short-rotation fibre crops and longer-rotation solid log crops. He has worked on forestry projects in Africa, Latin America, and Asia-Pacific. Michael has worked or consulted for ADIC, Mercer, Santanol, PNG Biomass, Forest First, sappi, Shell Renewables, Asia Pulp and Paper, Forestry Corporation, APRIL, Stora Enso, PNG Biomass, JK Paper, Midway, ABI Indonesia, Klabin and UPM Forestry.
Michael is an experienced Project Manager overseeing Forestry and Renewable Energy startup projects in the Pacific, Asia and South America. He specialises in the start up of greenfield projects and operational improvement in existing projects.
Key Skills: Project Management, Operational Improvement, Due Diligence, Valuation, Strategy, ESG
Education: MSc Forestry and it Relation to Land Use (Oxford University), BSc (Hons) Applied Biology, Imperial College, University of London)
Passionate about: Sustainable Project Development, Team Building and Development, Operational Improvement
Andrew Dickinson
PARTNER
Andrew has worked in the forestry industry for over 25 years with experience ranging from silviculture operations to the transactions of large forest estates. He is skilled in forest valuations, modelling of plantation growth and yields, and forest estate modelling. His focus has been in radiata pine, tropical and temperate eucalypts, and sandalwood plantations. He completed consulting projects in Australia, New Zealand, Indonesia, Malaysia, South America, and Africa. Andrew worked at Pöyry for eight years where he managed projects including forest valuations, transaction due diligence, feasibility studies, resource modelling, field inspections, and business strategy. Before Pöyry (AFRY) he worked for Timbercorp for three years as the Resource Information Manager and for Norske Skog for five years as an Information Systems Manager and Silviculture Forester.
Key Skills: Forest estate modelling, forest valuation, due diligence for acquisitions, carbon, inventory, modelling forest growth and yield, geographic information systems
Education: BSc (Forestry) (Australian National University) and an Executive MBA (Monash University)
Passionate about: working with clients to build forest estate models that are accurate for estimating value while flexible to evaluate management options
Independent Forester works with a network of associates to deliver projects, including:
Robert Davies
ASSOCIATE
Robert Davies has over 25 years of experience in plantation forestry in Latin America, Africa and the Pacific. Over his career, Robert has worked as a manager, consultant and contractor for a range of companies, including Weyerhauser, Shell Forestry, The Nature Conservatory, Forestal Oriental, Forest First, Forestal Yguazu, Interforest, PNG Biomass and the Institute of Commercial Forestry. Robert has been based in South America for over 20 years and has lived and worked in Uruguay, Guatemala, Paraguay and Colombia. He is a qualified Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) expert .
Key Skills: Greenfield / Brownfield Development, Operation Improvement, Due Diligence, Training and FSC preparation, ESG and Management of High Conservation Areas.
Education: BSc (Hons) Agriculture (University of Kwazulu Natal, RSA)
Passionate about: Project Sustainability, Effective and Measurable Impact Investments that Deliver Results, Training of People on Site and seeing the Positive Impacts of Our Work
Heinz Reinstorf
ASSOCIATE
Heinz has 30 years of international forest nursery experience including nursery management, design and build of projects, consulting and training. He has experience in commercial nursery operations focusing mainly on fast growing hardwood and softwood species. He also is involved with the design and development of nurseries producing natives for the purpose of rehabilitation and restoration projects.
He has worked on projects in South-East Asia, Africa, South America and Central America.
Some of the companies Heinz has worked for include Hunt Leuchars and Hepburn (South Africa), Mondi Forests (South Africa), Sinarmas Forestry (Indonesia), Riau Andalan Pulp and Paper (Indonesia), Mekong Timber Plantations (Laos), PNG Biomass (PNG), Stettin Bay Lumber Company (PNG), StoraEnso Guangxi (China), Japan Tobacco International (Zambia), Gatsby Africa (Tanzania and Kenya), Sequoia Plantations (Gabon), Arborcare (Ethiopia and Ghana), Arauco (Chile, Argentina and Brazil).
Key skills: designing, planning and budgeting for new nursery and seed plant projects; feasibility studies for the upgrading, modernisation and expansion of established nurseries; project facilitation and coordination; implementation of nursery management systems; propagation training of nursery staff.
Education: B.Sc. Forestry and B.Sc. (Honors) in Forestry (Cum Laude), majoring in Forest Engineering (University of Stellenbosch)
Passionate about: constructing well-designed container nurseries producing top quality seedlings; upgrading old facilities to propagate successfully; training and skills development of nursery staff; fine-tuning operations and optimising process flows in nurseries.
Williem Brink
ASSOCIATE
Willie is a versatile and experienced forestry professional with more than 40 years’ experience in commercial forestry industry. He has managed various forestry technical teams, operational forestry teams and has been a mentor for a number of forestry professionals. Willie operated as a general manager at an executive level for a forestry company in South Africa, while also contributing as an internal and external consultant for the company and its holding company. In 2021 he transitioned to a full-time role as forestry consultant. He has worked with species such as Pine, Eucalypt, Acacia, and Teak. He has managed consulting projects in South Africa, Eswatini, Mozambique Tanzania, Madagascar, Kenia, Uganda, Ghana, Sierra Leone, Laos, and Thailand. He specialises in forestry value chain (sawtimber, pole, veneer, and biomass production) optimisation (greenfield and brownfield) and the forestry planning activities that support this, including product optimisation. Additionally, projects often include the preparation of woodflow and biological asset valuation information. Besides company forestry planning activities, he has consulted on forestry projects which included aspects such as forestry resource analyses, biomass assessments, woodflow optimisation, forestry resource studies for industrial processing projects, carbon sequestration, and due diligence assessments.
Key Skills: Forestry resource analysis. Enumerations assessments. Preparation of strategic, tactical, and biological asset valuation and woodflow information. Development of sylviculture strategies. Forestry resource studies for industrial processing projects. Due diligence assessments.
Education: BSc Forestry from the University of Stellenbosch, South Africa
Passionate about: Forestry value chain optimisation. Woodflow optimisation. Development of people.
Jose Elizaul
ASSOCIATE
Jose Elizaul has over 28 years of experience in the forestry sector, with a focus on operational improvement and plantation management in the Southern Cone of South America. Jose’s main focus is on best-in-class management of Eucalyptus plantations for solid wood (saw and veneer), pulp, biomass, and carbon (Nature-Based Solutions).
Jose owns companies in Paraguay and Argentina that provide establishment, maintenance, harvesting, and wood chipping services to forest management companies in the region. His companies establish 10,000 hectares per year, as well as harvest over 250,000 GMT of wood annually.
Jose is also the co-founder of clonal eucalyptus nurseries in Paraguay and Argentina, with a combined annual production of more than 20 million plants.
Jose’s clients include: Arauco Argentina SA, Garruchos SA, Desarrollos Madereros SA, Paracel SA, Unique Wood, Ganadera Vista Alegre SA, and Alcogreen SA.
He has also provided advisory and consulting services to companies in Argentina, Colombia, Paraguay, and Uruguay.
Prior to establishing his own companies, Jose worked for Shell Renewables in Argentina and Paraguay, where he focused on the development of genetics and management regimes for the production of high-quality Eucalyptus solid wood.
Key skills: Project Management, Plantation Management, Plant Production, and Operational Management. Jose brings extensive experience in the forestry sector in Paraguay and Argentina.
Education: Ingeniero forestal (1996), Universidad Nacional de Misiones, Argentina.
Passionate about: Project management, overcoming new challenges in unconventional projects.