Summary of Nominee Profile
As the Global Palm Oil Director for the WWF Network, Kamal leads WWF's global palm oil programme. Based in Singapore, with his global palm oil team, he works with WWF network offices, teams, partners and other stakeholders to mainstream deforestation and conversion free supply chains, specifically sustainable palm oil production, trade and consumption all over the world and contribute towards UN SDG 12 - Responsible Consumption and Production and UN SDG 13 - Climate Action amongst many others. https://www.linkedin.com/in/kamalseth1/
Summary of Organisation Profile
Based in Gland, Switzerland, WWF International is the secretariat for WWF's global organization. Its role is to lead and coordinate the WWF Network of offices around the world, through developing policies and priorities, fostering global partnerships, coordinating international campaigns and providing supportive measures in order to help make the global operation run smoothly. WWF is an independent foundation registered under Swiss law, governed by a Board of Trustees under an International President. WWF's mission is to stop the degradation of the planet's natural environment and to build a future in which humans live in harmony with nature, by: - conserving the world's biological diversity - ensuring that the use of renewable natural resources is sustainable - promoting the reduction of pollution and wasteful consumption. WWF International is committed to the RSPO's vision of sustainable palm oil, as demonstrated by the role it played in establishing the RSPO in 2004 and its ongoing engagement in the RSPO process since then.
Summary of Nominee Profile
Harjinder Kler is with HUTAN – Kinabatangan Orang-utan Conservation Programme (KOCP), which is a community-based research and conservation Non-Governmental Organisation (NGO); based in the village of Sukau, along the biodiversity rich and oil palm landscape of the largest river basin in the Malaysian Borneo state of Sabah. Within his capacity at HUTAN, Harjinder engages with Government agencies, NGOs, universities, funders and the oil palm sector (primarily via the Roundtable for Sustainable Palm Oil). He earned his undergraduate degree in Parks & Recreation at Lincoln University in New Zealand and holds a Master's in Gender Studies from the University of Malaya, Malaysia.
Summary of Organisation Profile
HUTAN is a grassroots non-profit organisation working to ensure the long-term survival of wildlife populations in balance with local communities and the palm oil industry in the forests of Sabah, Malaysian Borneo. In 1998, HUTAN set up the Kinabatangan Orang-Utan Conservation Programme in collaboration with the Sabah Wildlife Department. We work with a wide range of partners - local communities, research institutions, government agencies and the private sector - to find realistic solutions where the sustainable use of natural resources and durable socio-economic development can be compatible with, and even support, the conservation of wildlife and their habitat.
Through KOCP, HUTAN has developed an integrated approach combining scientific research, protection and management of orang-utan habitat, capacity building, awareness campaigns, and community outreach and development projects. Over the past 26 years, HUTAN has encountered many challenges but our efforts have resulted in many successes: discoveries are being made on the ecology of keystone species such as orang-utan and Bornean elephants, new protected areas are created such as the Lower Kinabatangan Wildlife Sanctuary, sound policies for the conservation of wildlife are established in Sabah, solutions are implemented that reduce the levels of conflicts between human activities, and wildlife and pioneering initiatives by local communities are leading to tangible economic and conservation gains.
