Manuel Estrada

Manuel is Verra’s REDD+ and AFOLU Director, responsible for the day-to-day management and evolution of Verra’s work in this space. Manuel is also responsible for resolving critical issues related to AFOLU, including collaborating with relevant Program Team staff to respond to stakeholder inquiries and concerns, and supporting nesting of REDD+ projects. Manuel provides relevant policy and technical input to the Innovation Team to ensure new REDD+ and AFOLU related standards, methodologies and program innovations are technically sound and support and align with relevant international and domestic policy frameworks. Manuel also works with Verra’s Market Development team to support uptake and impact of Verra’s nature-based solutions and gather feedback from stakeholders to inform changes and improvements to relevant Verra standards.

 

Before joining Verra, Manuel worked on climate change issues for more than 20 years. He worked for the Ministry of Environment of Mexico for a decade where, as Director on Climate Change at the International Affairs Unit, he participated in UNFCCC negotiations. He subsequently became an independent consultant, carrying out more than 50 projects in almost 15 years for governments, international organizations and the private sector on the policy, financial, methodological and carbon accounting aspects of REDD+ and AFOLU. He helped develop the VCS AFOLU Requirements as part of the VCS ARR Expert Group, the VCS REDD Expert Group and the VCS WRC Expert Group and was a Lead Technical Expert for the VCS JNR. Manuel has also contributed to the development and validation of VCS AFOLU project methodologies and tools. Manuel has been a member of the UNFCCC Roster of Experts for years.