Andrew Kinzer

Andrew brings over a decade of experience working on restoration projects in East and Southern Africa in leadership roles building and scaling global programs. His career includes work with Eden:People+Planet, A Rocha Kenya, International Forestry Resources and Institutions (IFRI), and the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO). As Africa Area Director and later Deputy Director for Africa and Asia at Eden: People+Planet, he launched operations in eight country offices, creating thousands of jobs and establishing programs that have planted millions of trees while developing complex forest landscape restoration projects.

With expertise spanning reforestation operations, carbon project development, and landscape restoration, Andrew has successfully guided multi-country teams through significant organizational transitions – from straightforward tree planting to sophisticated forest restoration and carbon initiatives.

Andrew’s work is grounded in his research on forests as socioecological systems and the interactions between community needs and forest resource management. As a contributor to the Forests and Livelihoods: Assessment, Research, and Engagement (FLARE) research group, he has published in peer-reviewed journals and produced white papers for FAO on topics including forest-proximate communities, forest resource dependence, poverty alleviation, and restoration dynamics. His academic understanding of community needs informs his practical approach to building effective, large-scale restoration projects that integrate the priorities of forest-adjacent communities.