Part of the Yale Forest Forum series "Unlocking Forest Sector Innovation: The Practice and Potential Pathways to Scaling Up"

Speaker Alexander Held is a Senior Expert in Fire, Silviculture, and Wildlife at the European Forest Institute (EFI), where he works on the European Forest Risk Facility to strengthen landscape resilience through knowledge exchange, cooperation and mutual assistance across Europe. He also contributed to EFI's Integrate projects on disturbance and biodiversity in managed forests. Held earned a Master of Science in Forest Science from the University of Freiburg in Germany. He began his career in fire ecology with the Max Planck Society and the Global Fire Monitoring Center (GFMC), working in Europe and southern Africa before joining EFI in 2012. His expertise includes forest risk management, vegetation fire, silviculture and deer management. He also serves on the Hunting Advisory Board for the Breisgau-Hochschwarzwald district and coordinates hunting education for the Freiburg Hunting Association.