Yuki Nakamura
As Country Manager of Japan, Yuki oversees the market development and management of Preferred by Nature's service programmes in the country. He also delivers tailored services and certification audits mainly in the fields of forestry and agriculture. With endless passion, he ensures that our service portfolio supports human choices to ensure a sustainable future for all over the world from the Land of the Rising Sun.
With academic and professional experiences of over 15 years in the forest industry globally, Yuki has been focusing on combating illegal logging and supporting livelihood improvement of forest residents in the context of social forestry and SME inclusion. As a forester in spirit, he also has backbone expertise in planning forest management and forest engineering techniques such as cable yarding and road construction in the steep mountains of Japan.
Yuki is a former project leader and main author of the official Country Specific Guidelines of the Clean Wood Act of Japan (Clean Wood Navi), as well as an official committee member of the Working Group for producing the Due Diligence Guidelines for Timber Legality at the Forestry Agency of Japan. Prior to this current position, Yuki has had a leading role in the business sector as Sustainability Compliance Reviewer at Ingka/IKEA Japan, where he was responsible for reviewing its suppliers’ compliance with the internal code of conduct IWAY and designing its Forestry Section for the world’s largest single timber consuming company.
He specialises in providing in-depth insights to establish both due diligence and traceability systems for legality and sustainability of forest risk commodities and beyond.
Yuki has a MSc in Forest Ecology & Management from the University of Freiburg, Germany, and a BSc in Environmental Studies, Policy Option, from the State University of New York College of Environmental Science and Forestry, USA.
Yuki joined Preferred by Nature in 2023.
"In this world where every place belongs to a certain watershed, by seeking sustainability of industrial activities at the most upstream, namely forestry and its surrounding agriculture, it is possible to radically optimise the human activities and society located downstream in a harmonious way."
- FLEGT & REDD+ (esp. timber legality and DDS)
- Social forestry, livelihood diversification, financial inclusion
- Supply/value chain management & analysis of timber and non-timber forest products
- Forest/Farm Management and Chain of Custody auditing
- Forest management, engineering, GIS/remote sensing software
- Training development, implementation, and facilitation
- Participatory Action Research
Relevant work experience in:
Australia, Austria, Bangladesh, China, Cuba, Denmark, Ecuador, Finland, France, Germany, Indonesia, Italy, Japan, Laos, Malaysia, New Zealand, Romania, Russia, South Africa, South Korea, Spain, Sweden, Thailand, USA, Vietnam
Languages spoken:
Japanese, English, Spanish, Chinese (learning)
