New forestry commissioner appointed
5 December 2014Dr Mary Barkham has been appointed as a forestry commissioner for England for a three-year term.
Dr Barkham is an Oxfordshire-based independent consultant specialising in environmental research strategy, co-ordination and implementation.
She has 14 years’ leadership experience in UK research councils, mainly the Natural Environment Research Council. From 2002-2010 she led the Environment Research Funders’ Forum, which co-ordinates environmental science in the UK.
In 2010, as deputy director of the Living with Environmental Change Partnership, a collaboration of public-sector funders and users of environmental change research, Dr Barkham was involved in creating a UK research strategy on flooding and coastal erosion.
She also led the production of a series of climate change impact report cards to inform climate change risk assessment and adaptation in the UK, and worked with the Forestry Commission and Defra on tree health, leading to the development of the Tree Health and Plant Biosecurity Initiative.
