Nicolas Blanchette, (MBA, M.Sc.(for)) Ing.F.
Mr. Blanchette is specialized in forest certification chain of custody and forest management. Nicolas is involved in forest certification since his undergraduate studies. He completed studies in Honduras and Nicaragua, Central America and in the Michoacán Monarch Butterfly Model Forest in Mexico. He acquired an in-depth knowledge of the FSC certification program in Quebec, New Brunswick and in Mexico. He coordinated and collaborated on multiple FSC standard development processes in Canada currently sitting on the FSC Standard Development Group.
He is the Working Body Coordinator for the Sustainable Biomass Program (SBP) Quebec Regional Risk Assessment (RRA) and a member of the Working Body undertaking RRA's in different parts of Canada. Nicolas is a certified lead auditor for the FSC and ISO 14000 programs and a certified SBP auditor. He participated in certification audits in British Columbia, Alberta, Ontario, Quebec, New Brunswick and Nova Scotia. He supports companies throughout the forest value chain to move towards or to maintain forest management and chain of custody main certification programs. He develops and implements practical tools to efficiently comply with certification requirements and regulations in the field and in the processing facilities.
Carlos Paixo, (M.Sc.(for)) Ing.F.
Professional Forester, member of the OIFQ since 2017, Carlos also has a diploma in wood engineering and a master's degree in forestry. He has worked on various projects in the forestry sector, from harvesting raw materials to processing. His professional experience includes the development of various technical studies for the wood industry in Europe, South America and North America. In particular, he contributed to studies on the effect of the spruce budworm epidemic on the quality of wood in the Quebec boreal forest. Carlos is an auditor of several certification standards, including SBP program, FSC and PEFC. Carlos is also recently qualified as a verifier of forest carbon projects. He speaks and writes French, English and Portuguese.
Éric Forget, (M.Sc.(for)) Ing.F.
Éric Forget holds a bachelor's degree in forest management and completed a master's degree at Laval University in 1995. He began his career with the British Columbia Ministry of Forests as a silviculturist and planning manager, before returning in Quebec to occupy the position of coordinator of an inhabited forest project in Estrie. In 2000, he joined the team at the Institut Québécois d’Aménagement de la Forêt Feuillue (IQAFF) as a researcher where he contributed to more than thirty research projects. Mr. Forget notably worked to evaluate the yield of garden cuts and participated in the development of spatially explicit planning tools. Since 2010, he has worked for Nova Sylva, a consulting firm specializing in forest certification of which he is co-founder. With his participation in the work to develop the FSC Grands-Lacs-St-Laurent (2007) and Canadian forest management (2018) standards, he was the project manager for the implementation of FSC and SFI certification. on around ten development units over the last 15 years. Since 2015, he has carried out audits for FSC, SFI and ISO 14 001 standards across Canada. He is a member of the Order of Forestry Engineers of Quebec.
Ugo Lapointe, M.Sc.(biol)
A biologist since 2006, Ugo has worked since the end of his studies to improve the social and environmental practices of businesses, government agencies and civil society. He serves its clients in the forestry, agricultural and manufacturing sectors in America, Asia and Africa by carrying out environmental studies, implementing environmental management systems and supporting carbon footprint reduction projects. During his career, he has carried out more than 200 audits for environmental standards and has trained more than fifty FSC auditors. An outstanding presenter, Ugo is always ready to give conferences on environmental certifications, ecology and climate change.
Before becoming a consultant, he notably managed a portfolio of a hundred Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) certificates in Eastern Canada at Rainforest Alliance and led research projects on behalf of the Center for the Study of forest.
His academic background is in line with his current responsibilities. Since obtaining his master's degree in forest ecology and his bachelor's degree in biology, Ugo has completed university training in civil and commercial mediation and an Executive Masters of Business Administration. He is bilingual (English and French) and is based in Montreal.