Charles 'Chip' Barber

Charles 'Chip' Barber, Director of the Forest Legality Initiative at the World Resources Institute, speaks with Earth Live about the global fight against illegal logging and the policies that protect the world's forests.

Barber has spent his career at the intersection of forest policy and governance, working to strengthen the legal frameworks that prevent illegal timber from entering global markets. He explains how initiatives like the Lacey Act in the United States and the EU Timber Regulation have changed the dynamics of the global timber trade, and why enforcement, not just legislation, is the critical factor in reducing illegal logging.

The conversation examines the evolving landscape of forest governance, the role of technology in tracking timber from forest to market, and what the next generation of policies needs to address as pressure on the world's remaining natural forests continues to mount.