Chris is a research scientist with expertise in ecology, supply chain modelling, and private sector engagement. He joined Trase in 2018 and works in the impact and research teams, leading engagement with the corporate sector. Chris has helped develop models, tools and associated projects at SEI that explore the role of consumption and supply chain activities on environmental degradation and sustainable development. Chris holds a degree in Ecology, Conservation and the Environment (BSc, 2005) and Ecology (PhD, 2010) from the University of York. He works part-time on Trase.

Simon Croft

Jolene Tan

Chris West

Policy & regulation

To deliver on sustainable consumption targets, countries must measure their footprints

Reports & case studies

Approaches to assessing commodity-driven deforestation

Mark Titley

Assessing Germany’s soy deforestation risk

Michael Lathuillière

Business & finance

Trase enhances life cycle assessment with ‘commodity supply mix’

Stockholm Environment Institute

André is the Global Engagement Lead at Trase, Global Canopy's supply chain mapping initiative in partnership with the Stockholm Environment Institute (SEI). Based in Oxford, UK, André coordinates the team's engagement activities involving dialogue and solutions building with global actors to make agricultural commodity supply chains more sustainable. Over the last five years his work has focused on deforestation and supply chains, with a particular emphasis on the exposure of Chinese and European markets to deforestation and climate impacts.

Osvaldo Pereira

André Vasconcelos

Brazil

Mato Grosso's path to net-zero: Tackling pasture degradation for enhanced beef exports

China

Will China take action on imported deforestation?

Erasmus zu Ermgassen

Yuan Zhang 

How Brazil and China can use data for a more sustainable cattle sector

Carina Mueller

Commodity-driven deforestation and peatland loss emits more carbon than Germany

Thomas Sembres

Spotlight on Brazilian soy exports to France

Global Canopy

Engagement

Management

Clement is an Earth scientist and software developer who joined Trase in 2015. He is a co-founder of Trase and leads the development team behind Trase's data systems. He developed the first prototype of the Trase Earth platform. Before joining Trase, Clement was a researcher in planetary geophysics. At the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, he developed tools to study the magnetism of extraterrestrial rocks, including lunar samples from the Apollo missions and meteorites. Clement holds degrees in geosciences from Grenoble University (MSc, 2005) and Aix-Marseille University (PhD, 2009).

Supply chain mapping

Data

Erasmus is a scientist studying global food systems. He is based at UCLouvain and since 2018 has been working with the Trase research team to map commodity supply chains and analyse data for priority agendas. Erasmus is a qualified veterinarian and has a PhD on sustainable livestock farming, focusing on the impacts of the cattle ranching and animal feed sectors. Erasmus holds degrees from the University of Cambridge in Veterinary Medicine (MA VetMB, 2013), Food Security (MRes 2014), and Sustainable Livestock Production (PhD, 2018).

Traceability is not a silver bullet for reducing deforestation

James Richens

Valentin Guye

Cocoa traders fall short on supplier disclosure in Ghana

Tiago Reis

Brazilian beef exports and deforestation

Action needed to address indirect sourcing 'blindspot'

Chocolate companies face deforestation risks from unknown cocoa supplies

Mapping cocoa exports from Côte d’Ivoire and Ghana

Coronavirus drives US beef imports from Amazon

Université catholique de Louvain

Jason is a geospatial data specialist and researcher. He started collaborating with Trase in 2018 and works on Indonesian supply chains. Previously, Jason was the Data Analytics and Visualization lead at The Forest Trust (now Earthworm Foundation) focusing on geo-data management, supply chain mapping, and data collection support for field assessments and smallholder engagement. He has broad experience in geospatial data analysis working in the private sector and non-profits in Malaysia and Australia. Jason holds a degree in Remote Sensing from the University of Technology Malaysia (BSc, 2004).

Jason Jon Benedict

Robert Heilmayr

Indonesia

Indonesian palm oil exports and deforestation

Indonesia makes progress towards zero palm oil deforestation

University of California, Santa Barbara

Spatial intelligence

Jonathan is a conservation scientist and joined Trase in 2018. Jonathan works across Trase's impact and research teams mapping commodity supply chains and analysing Trase data for priority agendas. Before joining Trase, Jonathan investigated the ecological impacts of coastal land conversion, worked closely with business and sustainability managers, and researched the impacts of agricultural commodity consumption on biodiversity. Jonathan holds degrees in Zoology from the University of St Andrews (BSc, 2007) and the University of Cambridge (PhD, 2012). Jonathan works part-time on Trase.

Jonathan Green

Mapping the Indonesian shrimp supply chain

Research

Maria is a researcher specialising in commodity supply chains and their social and environmental impacts. She joined Trase in 2017. Maria works across Trase's impact and research teams mapping commodity supply chains and analysing data for key audiences in Latin America. Before joining Trase, she worked as a research assistant for a range of environmental NGOs and academic institutions and completed fieldwork in Brazil’s semi-arid zone. Maria holds degrees in Latin American studies from the University of Liverpool (BA, 2012) and Human Geography from the University of Cambridge (MPhil, 2014).

Maria Tyldesley

Stanislaw Czaplicki Cabezas

Deforestation and climate change threaten Bolivia’s soy sector

Soy expansion drives deforestation in Bolivia

High deforestation risk for beef from the Paraguayan Chaco

Soy deforestation risk in Paraguay continues despite decline

Mark is a conservation scientist and ecologist interested in the global drivers of biodiversity loss. He joined Trase in 2021, helping to map the international supply chains of commodities driving deforestation and assess their impacts on ecosystems. He also presents Trase at events, and helps companies, governments and financial institutions get the most out of our data. Before Trase, Mark completed a PhD exploring how the combination of land-use change and climate change shape global patterns of biodiversity loss (Durham University, 2022). He also holds degrees in Natural Sciences from the University of Cambridge (BA, 2016) and in Ecosystem and Environmental Change from Imperial College London (MRes, 2017).

Helen Bellfield

UK unprotected from high levels of deforestation exposure

EU27 countries in the spotlight for deforestation exposure

US FOREST Act: Lack of progress leaves forests at risk 

Trase links Belgium’s commodity imports to water scarcity

Beyond forests: traders face EU regulatory risks from soy expansion in Brazil

Key sources of deforestation risk for Europe revealed

How to measure a country’s imported tropical deforestation risk

Michael is an ecohydrologist and water footprint specialist who joined Trase in 2018. He leads Trase's supply-chain mapping team and research on priority agendas. Michael is a member of the Trase Management Team. Before joining Trase, he conducted research in Brazil and studied both water and carbon cycles in natural and agro-ecosystems. Michael holds degrees in Chemistry from the University of British Columbia (BSc, 2002) and Resources, Environment and Sustainability from the University of British Columbia (MSc, 2011; PhD, 2018).

Argentina: The overlooked hub of South American soy

Michaela is a Data and Policy Analyst at the European Forest Institute (EFI) who joined Trase in 2021. She analyzes Trase data in support of EFI’s work to promote transparency in forest-risk commodity supply chains. Prior to joining EFI, Michaela completed a PhD at Yale University on the impacts of natural resource policies on land use change. She holds degrees in Forestry and Environmental Studies from Yale University (PhD, 2021; MPhil, 2017), Natural Resources from North Carolina State University (MS, 2015), and Environmental Science and Policy from Duke University (BA, 2013). She works part-time on Trase.

European Forest Institute

Osvaldo is a geographic information systems specialist who joined Trase in 2021. He works on mapping supply chains and analysing data for key audiences in South America and China. Before joining Trase, Osvaldo worked at The Nature Conservancy Brazil as the technical coordinator of the Agroideal decision support system, with a focus on soy and beef production chains in Amazon, Cerrado and Chaco biomes. Osvaldo holds degrees in Geography from the State University of São Paulo (BA, 2008), and Agronomy from the University of São Paulo (MA, 2011) and the University of Toulon-Var (PhD, 2014).

Martin Persson

Chandrakant Singh

DeDuCE: New data to inform action against commodity-driven deforestation

Missing deforestation-risk products undermine EU’s due diligence proposal

Paula is the South America Engagement Lead at Trase, with special focus in Brazil, since 2024. Based in Rio de Janeiro, Paula promotes engagement activities involving dialogue and solutions building with Brazilian actors to make agricultural commodity supply chains more sustainable. With over 15 years of experience on land use and deforestation, she has worked at civil society and philanthropy organizations and participated in networks and multistakeholder coalitions.

Paula holds degrees in Environmental Management from University of Sao Paulo (BA, 2007) and in Economic Development from University of Campinas (MSc, 2013).

Daniel Meyer

Paula Bernasconi

Creating a sustainable jurisdiction for agriculture and conservation

Robert is an interdisciplinary land system scientist with expertise in environmental economics and remote sensing who started collaborating with Trase in 2018. Robert works on supply chain mapping and sustainability research on the Indonesian palm oil and wood pulp sectors and is also a member of the Trase Scientific Advisory Committee. Robert holds a degree in environment, economics and politics from Claremont McKenna College (BA, 2006) and degrees in economics (MA, 2015) and environment and resources (PhD, 2016) from Stanford University.

Simon is a mathematician and modeller who joined Trase in 2018. He works across Trase's data and research teams mapping commodity supply chains and analysing Trase data for priority agendas and target users. Before joining Trase, Simon worked on global supply chain mapping and consumption based models. He has experience developing and applying methods for quantifying the flows of goods and their associated impacts. Simon holds degrees in Mathematics and Theoretical Ecology from the University of York (MMath, 2006; PhD, 2012). He works part-time on Trase.

Thomas is a land-use governance expert who started collaborating with Trase in 2015. Thomas is the Trase lead at the European Forests Institute. His work focuses on target users in Europe, Indonesia and West Africa. Before joining EFI, Thomas worked on programs to address drivers of deforestation at the UN Environment Programme in Kenya, the World Bank in the United States, and for philanthropic foundations. Thomas holds degrees in Environmental Policy from the University of Cambridge (MPhil, 2008) and Public Policy from the Paris Institute of Political Studies.

Valentin is an economist researcher who joined Trase in 2023 and works in the Supply Chain Mapping and Research teams. He is in charge with updating and developing the cocoa supply chain models, in Ivory Coast and Ghana. Before that, Valentin was a PhD student at MCC Berlin and PSAE paris, where he did research on Indonesian palm oil deforestation and on pan-tropical indirect land use change, using econometrics. Valentin holds degrees in economics from Université Paris-Saclay (BSc, 2015; MSc, 2017; PhD, 2022) and in geography from Humboldt Universität zu Berlin (cotutelle PhD, 2022).

Smallholder cocoa farmers need support as EUDR compliance nears

Côte d'Ivoire cocoa exports and deforestation

Chris West

Insights by Chris West

Analysis
15 Nov 2023

To deliver on sustainable consumption targets, countries must measure their footprints

Explainer
14 Jun 2022

Approaches to assessing commodity-driven deforestation

Analysis
13 Jun 2022

Assessing Germany’s soy deforestation risk

Other Team Members

André Vasconcelos

Clement Suavet

Erasmus zu Ermgassen

Jason Jon Benedict

Jonathan Green

Maria Tyldesley

Mark Titley

Michael Lathuilliere

Michaela Foster

Osvaldo Pereira

Paula Bernasconi

Robert Heilmayr

Simon Croft

Thomas Sembres

Valentin Guye

Chris West

Insights by Chris West

Analysis15 Nov 2023

To deliver on sustainable consumption targets, countries must measure their footprints

Explainer14 Jun 2022

Approaches to assessing commodity-driven deforestation

Analysis13 Jun 2022

Assessing Germany’s soy deforestation risk

Other Team Members

André Vasconcelos

Clement Suavet

Erasmus zu Ermgassen

Jason Jon Benedict

Jonathan Green

Maria Tyldesley

Mark Titley

Michael Lathuilliere

Michaela Foster

Osvaldo Pereira

Paula Bernasconi

Robert Heilmayr

Simon Croft

Thomas Sembres

Valentin Guye

Analysis
15 Nov 2023

Explainer
14 Jun 2022

Analysis
13 Jun 2022