Neil Bird

Neil Bird's current research focuses on environmental policy and the international funding mechanisms that are being put in place to address climate change in aid-receiving countries. This work complements earlier research on aid architecture, national budgetary processes and sector policy for environment and natural resources.

Governance has been a long-standing theme in much of Neil’s work. He has been involved in a number of studies that have examined transparency and accountability in decision-making within the forest sector. He has also contributed to improvements in regulatory systems, having worked on forest law and regulations, the rationalisation of timber licensing and the development of forest certification.

Neil trained as a forester and has almost twenty years of experience as a development professional. Prior to joining ODI, Neil worked as a long-term adviser within several forest departments, most recently in Guyana (1999 to 2002) and prior to that in Belize (1992 to 1998) and Ghana (1988 to 1991).

BSc (Forestry), MSc (Forestry and its Relation to Land Use).