About Intact

IntAct is an initiative consisting of organizations that have signed the IntAct Statement of Principles and work to advance IntAct’s mission i.e. to build consensus within the NGO community, international policy fora and the private sector on the need to prioritize the protection of primary forests. IntAct signatories carry out its mission by:

  1. Disseminating information and knowledge products to raise awareness of the unique and essential role primary forests play in meeting the objectives of key multilateral agreements including the CBD, UNFCCC and SDGs; 
  2. Promoting evidence-based and scientifically sound policies and market mechanisms that support and help prioritize primary forest stewardship and protection;  
  3. Advancing the full range of conservation-based approaches and protected area types that have a demonstrated capacity to enable primary forest protection and sustainable livelihoods, including: territories and areas conserved by indigenous peoples and local communities, government protected areas, private protected areas and areas protected under payments for ecosystem services mechanisms. 

IntAct’s Steering Committee

Patrick Alley – Co-Founder, Global Witness

Dr. Charles Barber – Senior Manager, Forest Legality Alliance, World Resources Institute

Dr. Dominick DellaSala – President, Geos Institute

Dr. Sean Foley – Samdhana Institute Fellow, Samdhana Institute

Cyril Kormos – Executive Director, Wild Heritage

Bernard Mercer – Independent adviser / researcher, Mercer Environment Associates

Tyson Miller – Forest Programs Director, STAND.earth

Peter Riggs – Director, Pivot Point, A Nonprofit Corporation

Virginia Young – Director, International Forests and Climate Programme, Australian Rainforest Conservation Society

Dr. Barbara Zimmerman – Director Kayapo Project, International Conservation Fund of Canada

Read the InTact Statement of Priciples >>>

History

The need for a new global initiative to prioritize primary forest protection in international policy was first discussed by a number of NGO representatives at the 5th IUCN World Conservation Congress in Jeju, South Korea in 2012. The idea for a new initiative was then advanced significantly at WILD10 in Salamanca in November of 2013, where 30 leading experts from around the world convened at the “Earth Forests Roundtable” for a day of discussions on primary forests in the Salón de Pinturas in the Colegio Arzobispo Fonseca at the University of Salamanca. Following the Roundtable, and with the generous assistance of a planning grant to the WILD Foundation from the Arcus Foundation, strategic planning meetings were held at the Zoological Society of London in May of 2014. IntAct was subsequently launched in November of 2014 at the 6th World Parks Congress in Sydney, Australia.