Robert Nasi is born in 1959 in Nice. He graduated as a forest engineer from the French National Forestry School and achieved a PhD in the field of ecology from the University of Paris Sud – Orsay. Since 1982 he has been living and travelling extensively in Africa, Asia and the Pacific undertaking research activities in the fields of ecology and management of tropical forests. He joined CIFOR in August 1999 and hold several research and management positions in the organization (principal scientist, biodiversity programme leader, programme director). He is currently, since August 2011, the Director of the CGIAR Research Program on "Forests, Trees and Agroforestry".