Chip Barber

Charles “Chip” Barber is Director for the Forest Legality Alliance and for Government Relations in the Forests Program at the World Resources Institute (WRI). He joined WRI in March 2014 from the U.S. Department of State, where he served as Forest Chief in the Bureau of Oceans and International Environmental and Scientific Affairs from 2009 to 2014. While at State, Chip led bilateral and multilateral diplomatic and political efforts for the United States, including matters related to the Lacey Act and illegal logging, with a particular focus on China, Indonesia, Peru, Burma, and the Congo Basin countries. In the Rio+20 process during 2012, Chip chaired the UN negotiations covering forests, biodiversity, poverty, agriculture and mountains. Prior to joining the State Department, Chip served from 2005-2009 at USAID, where he represented the agency in multilateral processes including the Convention on Biological Diversity, the UN Convention to Combat Desertification, CITES, and the Global Environment Facility (GEF). At both USAID and the State Department, Chip was an active participant in the U.S. government interagency process, leading the inter-agency working group on international forest affairs, and chairing the climate and environment working group under President Obama’s U.S.-Indonesia Comprehensive Partnership. Chip previously worked for WRI from 1989 to 2001 on forest, biodiversity and marine programs, based in the Philippines from 1994-2001. Chip received his B.A. in Legal Studies from the University of Massachusetts, his M.A. in Asian Studies, J.D., and Ph.D. in Jurisprudence and Social Policy from the University of California at Berkeley.