Efficient, integrative and professional
Our team has excellent knowledge and experience in forestry and agriculture, climate protection, economics, environmental policy and organizational development. With more than 80 employees, we offer an extensive pool of expertise. This enables us to respond efficiently and professionally across disciplines to our clients’ requirements.
Management team

Anke
Reichhuber
Anke
Reichhuber
- Head of Agriculture and Rural Development Department
- PhD, Graduate economist
Anke Reichhuber is an expert in agriculture and sustainable land use. Ms. Reichhuber’s main areas of expertise are the development and evaluation of investment projects as well as analytical studies in the fields of natural resources, agriculture and climate change. She worked as an Agriculture Economist at the World Bank for five years. Her regional focus is on Africa and Asia.

Bernd
Wippel
Bernd
Wippel
- Head of the Forestry Department
- PhD, Graduate Forestry Economist, Graduate Economist
Bernd Wippel is an expert in forest-related economic and strategy issues in both national and international contexts. He works with the private sector, public administrations and associations to adapt to economic and social challenges.

Carola
Deutschmann
Carola
Deutschmann
- Accounting Manager
- Tax Advisor

Gwenaëlle
Knerr
Gwenaëlle
Knerr
- Human Resources Manager
- Master Human Resources Management
Gwenaëlle Knerr is the HR Manager. She is responsible for all HR tasks, including recruitment, integration of new staff, career development, labor law, and salaries. Gwenaëlle Knerr has more than 16 years of experience in HR and administration of small and medium enterprises and globally operating company groups, both in France and Germany.

Jana
Rauch
Jana
Rauch
- Head of Business Development
- Mag. Art. Geography, Cultural Anthropology, Business Administration; MSc International Management and Negotiations
Jana Rauch is a senior expert for planning, management and evaluation of TC projects in the green sector. She has worked in international cooperation since 2006, including as an advisor at the GIZ. As head of Unique’s Business Development Unit, she is responsible for acquisition, quality management and cross-departmental services within the company. In her role as a consultant for bilateral German International Cooperation, she is active worldwide with a focus on Latin America.

Jochen
Statz
Jochen
Statz
- Head of Agriculture and Rural Development Department
- PhD, Graduate Forestry Economist, NDS Development Cooperation
Jochen Statz is an expert in international forestry development cooperation. His work focuses on forestry, rural regional development and adaptation to climate change. He has many years of experience as a leader of forestry development projects in cooperation with governmental and non-governmental actors. Mr. Statz is active worldwide with a regional focus on East Africa, South Asia and Central Asia.

Johannes
Wölcke
Johannes
Wölcke
- Managing Director
- PhD Agricultural Economics
Johannes Wölcke spent 10 years at the World Bank as Senior Economist and 2 years at GIZ as Program Manager and Senior Advisor. His work focuses on the development and implementation of complex and innovative investment projects and programs, as well as analytical work at the interface between agriculture, natural resource management, and climate change. He has more than 20 years of practical experience in Africa, Asia, Eastern Europe, Central Asia, and Latin America.

Matthias
Seebauer
Matthias
Seebauer
- Head of Monitoring and MRV, Deputy Head of Climate Department
- Diplom-Forstwirt
Matthias Seebauer is one of the leading international experts in the field of monitoring, MRV and impact monitoring. He also has many years of work experience regarding inventories, trainings and the implementation of sustainable land use. The regional focus of his work in the climate and land use sector is Africa and Asia, especially China.

Till
Pistorius
Till
Pistorius
- Head of Climate Department
- PhD, Graduate Forest Economist
Till Pistorius is an internationally renowned expert in climate and biodiversity policy. Between 2006 and 2015, he was part of the German delegation to the negotiations of the Framework Convention on Climate Change and the Convention on Biological Diversity. His work focuses on environmental policy development and governance of Forest Landscape Restoration (FLR), Ecosystem-based Adaptation (EbA), REDD+, and other land use issues. The regional focus of his work is Southeast Asia.

Timm
Tennigkeit
Timm
Tennigkeit
- Managing Director
- PhD, Graduate Forestry Economist, industrial business management assistent
Timm Tennigkeit is an expert in the development and implementation of investment projects in agriculture and forestry. He works on private and public investment projects at the interface between climate change mitigation and land use. He has more than 20 years of practical experience in Africa and Asia as a World Bank consultant and farm manager.

Tina
Raimann
Tina
Raimann
- Head of Administration
- Computer Management Specialist (HWK)
Team

Adaugo
Okoli
Adaugo
Okoli
- Trainee
- MSc Environmental Protection and Agricultural Food Production
Ada Okoli’s work focuses on the development of nature-based carbon projects, with core expertise in agricultural land management (ALM) and grassland management projects.
She specialises in MRV of projects with the VCS and CCBS standards. Her regional focus is Africa

Adrian
Birek
Adrian
Birek
- Trainee
- MSc Environmental Sciences
Adrian Birek focuses his expertise on developing monitoring and measuring, reporting and verification (MRV) systems for integrated agricultural land management (IALM) and agroforestry carbon projects. He is also involved in soil organic carbon and trace gas fluxes modelling.

Alison
Vogler
Alison
Vogler
- Acquisition Assistant
- Business Economist
Alison Vogler works as an Acquisition Assistant in the Business Development Unit. She provides support with the formal requirements in the acquisition process, ensures that all documents are correctly compiled and, as a Business Economist, supports the business processes. She has extensive experience in supporting international customers in a wide variety of industries and uses this in international correspondence with partner organizations and experts.

Altynai
Adabaeva
Altynai
Adabaeva
- Analytics Engineer
- MSc Economics and Management Science
Altynai Adabaeva is an analytics engineer specializing in database modeling, data quality assurance, and analysis. Her primary objective at Unique is to enhance data efficiency and scale data analytics for forestry and carbon projects.

Alwin
Keil
Alwin
Keil
- Senior Agricultural Economist, Agriculture and Rural Development Department
- PhD Agricultural Economics
Alwin was Assistant Professor at the agricultural faculty of the University of Hohenheim (Germany) and he worked for CIMMYT as Senior Economist based in India. He focuses on analytical work and capacity development at the interface between agriculture, climate change and natural resource management. Alwin has strong exper-tise in quantitative and qualitative analyses related to the agricultural sector of developing countries.

Angelo
Mayer
Angelo
Mayer
- Geoinformatics expert
- MSc Geography, study focus Geoinformatics
The core areas of Angelo Mayer are geoinformatics and data science. He is specialized in the evaluation and analysis of 3D LiDAR as well as image-based remote sensing data from
various platforms. His main methods and tools are machine learning algorithms, GIS and databases.

Annika
Korte
Annika
Korte
- Senior Consultant, Business Development
- MA Political Science
Annika Korte is a senior expert in quality management and environmental and social safeguards. She has worked in international cooperation since 2012 and is responsible for acquisition management and the company’s quality management system (ISO 9001) at Unique. As a consultant, she focuses on assignments related to safeguards and gender in Africa and Asia. In addition to Unique, she has worked at GIZ and the World Bank during her career.

Athena
Birkenberg
Athena
Birkenberg
- Senior Consultant, Climate Department
- Doctor of Agricultural Sciences (Dr. sc. agr.)
Athena Birkenberg is an agricultural economist with experience in international climate projects, sustainable value chains (i.e. coffee and cocoa), governance and rural development. She has extensive experience with community participation and land uses in the tropics. Her focus is on investment-related biodiversity and community aspects (VERRA CCBS).

Axel
Weinreich
Axel
Weinreich
- Lead Forest Information Systems, Forestry Department
- PhD, Graduate Forestry Economist, Assessor of the Forest Service
Axel Weinreich is an expert in silviculture, forest planning, forest inventories and forest information systems. His work focuses on the further development of multi-source forest monitoring systems, the modernization of forest planning and forest information systems (FIS).

Benjamin
Schwarz
Benjamin
Schwarz
- Consultant, Climate Department
- MSc Forest Sciences
Benjamin Schwarz is an expert in voluntary carbon markets, monitoring, and MRV for the land use sector. His work focuses on climate change project development, soil carbon modeling, and carbon fluxes. Regional foci of his work are West Africa, the South Pacific, and Latin America.

Carolyne
Musee
Carolyne
Musee
- Carbon monitoring officer
- Bsc Agriculture
Carolyne Musee is an expert in rural development, supporting communities to integrate digital solutions in the monitoring of Sustainable Agriculture, Agroforestry, Climate change, and Livelihood improvement programmes. She has spent 13 years supporting the development and MRV process of Agriculture carbon projects under VCS. In Unique, she is supporting the design and setup of the MRV systems in Agroforestry Carbon Projects in Kenya to enable validation and verification of the projects against the VCS Verra standards.

Christian
Held
Christian
Held
- Lead Forest Economist, Forestry Department
- PhD, Graduate Forestry Economist, tax clerk
Christian Held works across markets and value chain analysis, future markets of the forestry and timber industry, investment consulting for forestry and industrial companies and related valuation issues. He also works on timber trade flows, as well as timber sector and cluster studies in Germany and abroad.

Christina
Unnewehr
Christina
Unnewehr
- Consultant, Business Development
- Master of Evaluation (M.Eval.), MSc Development and International Relations
Christina Unnewehr works in the areas of acquisition, project management and monitoring & evaluation. This includes coordinating the preparation of proposals, managing project implementation and project work in the field of M&E. In addition to two Master’s degrees in Evaluation and Development & International Relations, Christina Unnewehr has further professional training as a coordinator in International Project Management (IPM). She has also gained regional experience at GIZ in East Africa.

Christy
Williams
Christy
Williams
- Trainee
- MSc Environmental Governance, BA Political Science
Christy Williams specialises in environmental and social governance for sustainable development projects as well as carbon finance policy. His work currently focuses on the application of climate, community and biodiversity standards for the voluntary carbon market along with the adoption of Paris Agreement Article 6 rules for market-based approaches. He also has experience in quality assurance and support for large-scale acquisitions.

Connor
Kahlau
Connor
Kahlau
- Trainee
- MSc Forest Sciences
Connor Kahlau specialises in climate-smart forestry in Central Europe. He works on climate change adaptation of forests and in biodiversity monitoring worldwide.

Daniela
Boru
Daniela
Boru
- Trainee for office administration
- MSc Environmental Sciences

Dejan
Baković
Dejan
Baković
- Consultant, Digital Solutions
- MSc Forestry
Dejan’s major fields of interest are GIS and remote sensing, forest inventory design, forest management planning, and forest information systems. He contributes to both the development and execution of forestry field campaigns. Through spatial statistics and analytics, Dejan actively supports FLR studies and projects regarding climate change and the forest’s response to it.

Dennis
Hilfinger
Dennis
Hilfinger
- Office administration
- B.A.

Eva
Kehayova
Eva
Kehayova
- Consultant, Forestry Department
- MSc Forestry
Eva Kehayova is an expert in the fields of forestry associations and initial reforestation. Her work focuses on consulting for organizational forms of private forests as well as communication strategies for activating forest owners and the accompaniment of forest policy transformation processes.

Florian
Burmeister
Florian
Burmeister
- IT Administrator
- Office administrator

Gero
Pawlowski
Gero
Pawlowski
- Senior Consultant, Agriculture and Rural Development Department
- Graduate Engineer in Tropical Forestry and Natural Resource Management
Gero Pawlowski is an expert in sustainable forest management, forest and resource conservation. His work focuses on the acquisition and supervision of studies as well as the coordination of the implementation of long-term projects. The regional focus is South America and East Africa. Gero Pawlowski is currently head of an agroforestry training project in Zambia on behalf of the BMEL.

Gopika
Suresh
Gopika
Suresh
- Senior consultant Digital Solutions
- Dr.rer.nat Geosciences, M.Sc. Satellite engineering, B.Tech Electronics & communication engineering
Gopika Suresh is a senior Remote Sensing/Earth Observation (EO) scientist, a Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) expert and a Python programmer. Previously, she worked on developing SAR based methods & tools for detecting and monitoring forests & land cover changes, marine/coastal hazards and mapping damage from hazards like floods, storms, earthquakes and wildfires. At Unique, she is responsible for co-ordinating & developing EO based tools & solutions for global carbon projects.

Guilherme
Arruda
Guilherme
Arruda
- Consultant, Forestry Department
- BSc Geography, MSc Environmental Sciences
Guilherme Arruda is a geographer and enviromental scientist, with overall work experience in GIS and remote sensing. As a brazilian, he has professional experience in and prior knowledge about Brazil and Latin America, acquired in different areas of the private sector.

Jacinto
Coello Imberton
Jacinto
Coello Imberton
- Senior Consultant, Climate Department
- Master of Public Administration, MSc Environment and Development
Jacinto is a senior expert in the development and implementation of environmental and climate finance projects. His focus is on sustainable land use, restoration and REDD+. Prior to joining Unique, he worked at UNEP on private and financial sector engagement in REDD+, sustainable land use, and supply chains and governance. Jacinto has extensive experience in Latin America, Africa and Asia Pacific.

Jaime
Garbanzo Lèon
Jaime
Garbanzo Lèon
- Geoinformatics expert
- MSc Eng in Geodesy and Geomatics Engineering
Jaime Garbanzo Leon is a geoscientist and expert in GIS, modeling, quality control and assessment of monitoring data. He works at Unique at the interface of web-mapping, remote sensing and geophysics. The focus of his work is on the automation of mapping processes and the development of programming tools.

Jill
Voelkel
Jill
Voelkel
- Trainee
- BSc Biology, MSc Environment and Society Studies
Jill Voelkel is a biologist who specialized in environmental governance during her master’s degree. At Unique, she works in the Business Development department on the management of acquisitions and projects as well as safeguards and gender assignments. Before joining Unique, she supported the German cooperation agency GIZ on forest conservation with local communities in Brazil.

Johannes
Mössinger
Johannes
Mössinger
- Consultant Digital Solutions
- PhD, MSc Agricutural Economics
Johannes Mössinger is an expert in management information systems and software for impact monitoring, as well as land use modeling. He is developing robust monitoring tools tailored to the requirements of standards and the needs of family farms. The regional focus of his work is on Latin America and East Africa.

Johannes
Pirker
Johannes
Pirker
- Consultant, Climate Department
- PhD Bioscience Engineering, Msc Forestry
Johannes Pirker is an experienced expert in international forestry. His work focuses on the development of voluntary carbon market projects, forest financial cooperation programs, and MRV and monitoring systems in the context of REDD+ and FLR. His regional focus is Francophone Africa, Southeast Asia, and Latin America.

John
Nyaga
John
Nyaga
- Senior Consultant, Climate Department
- PhD Plant Science, MSc Botany
John Nyaga is a senior expert for the development of smallholder farms and sustainable land management projects for climate change mitigation and adaptation. The focus of his work is on designing, training, monitoring and implementing agroforestry projects in East, West and Southern Africa.

Jonas
Lechner
Jonas
Lechner
- Consultant, Climate Department
- MSc Forest- and Wood Sciences
Jonas Lechner is an expert in tropical forestry, FLR and plantation management. Prior to joining Unique, he established and managed nurseries and plantations in Borneo. His work focuses on implementing forest investments, carbon forestry projects and supporting smallholders in Southeast Asia, Africa and Latin America.

Jonas
Nacke
Jonas
Nacke
- Consultant, Forestry Department
- MSc Forest Bioeconomy Business and Policy
Jonas Nacke is a forestry expert with a focus on market studies and analysis along the timber value chain. Furthermore, he works on economic analysis and valuations of forest enterprises. His regional focus is on Europe and East Africa.

Joseph
Macharia
Joseph
Macharia
- Senior Consultant, Climate Department
- PhD Agroclimatology
Joseph Macharia is a senior expert for the development of nature-based projects for the voluntary carbon market. He is specialized on smallholder agroforestry projects, including training and monitoring, implementation, and MRV systems. His regional focus is East, Central and South Africa.

Juan Carlos
Zamora
Juan Carlos
Zamora
- Consultant, Climate Department
- MSc Management and Conservation of Tropical Forests and Biodiversity
Juan Carlos Zamora is a forestry expert with expertise in designing land use interventions for the voluntary carbon market, monitoring / MRV and global change assessments. His work focuses on the development and implementation of nature-based climate solutions in Latin America, South-east Asia, and Africa.

Juha
Leppänen
Juha
Leppänen
- Senior Consultant, Forestry Department
- M. Soc.Sc. (Econ.) & M. Agr.&For. (Forestry Planning)
Juha Leppänen has been working on private and public forest sector projects and assignments in Asia, Europe and Sub-Saharan Africa for the last 15 years. He is specialised in forest investment activities starting from forest resource and site assessments combined with market and financial analytics for timberland investment decisions.

Julia
Balzer
Julia
Balzer
- Trainee
- MSc Forest Sciences, Major in International Forestry
Julia Balzer specializes in climate mitigation land use projects, with a focus on sustainable forest management (SFM) and forest landscape restoration (FLR), including agroforestry systems, reforestation, and natural forests in the tropics. Core areas of her work include project design, greenhouse gas monitoring, and forest growth modeling.

Julia
Schütze
Julia
Schütze
- Consultant, Climate Department
- MSc Environmental Governance
Julia Schütze is an expert for soil hydrology in sustainable land use projects. The focus of her work is on the quantification and MRV / monitoring of soil erosion and the impact of land uses on water, e.g. in voluntary carbon market projects for the land use sector. Regional foci of her work are Africa, India and Latin America.

Katia
Obst
Katia
Obst
- Senior Consultant, Business Development
- MSc Sustainable Forestry and Land Use Management
Katia Obst is a senior expert in project management and gender in the forestry and land use sector. Since 2002, she has been responsible at Unique for identifying relevant tenders, managing acquisitions and projects and ensuring the quality of internal processes. The regional focus of her consulting assignments is the German forestry sector and, as a native Spanish speaker, Latin America.

Katja
Weyhermüller
Katja
Weyhermüller
- Consultant, Digital Solutions
- MSc Tropische und Internationale Forstwissenschaften
Katja Weyhermüller focuses her expertise in tropical forest ecology. The focus of her work in the Digital Solutions Team (DST) is the analysis of geoinformation and remote sensing data. She works on projects mainly in the field of carbon certification (VCS), soil erosion and sustainable land use. She is also part of forest monitoring projects in Germany, Latin America and East Africa.

Laura
Frey
Laura
Frey
- Consultant, Climate Department
- MSc Economic Growth, Population and Development
Laura is an expert in international climate projects, with a focus on governance, safeguards and gender. The regional focus of her work is Latin America, the Caribbean and Southeast Asia. She further worked already in the field of climate risk management and Loss and Damage.

Leif
Nutto
Leif
Nutto
- Lead Forester, Forestry Department
- PhD, Graduate Forestry Economist
Leif Nutto has many years of international project experience in the specialist areas of silviculture and utilization of plantation and natural forests. His focus is on the analysis and optimization of process flows along forestry and timber industry value chains as well as the review and implementation of investments in the forestry sector.

Lincoln
Davis
Lincoln
Davis
- Senior Consultant, Agriculture and Rural Development Department
- Master of Agricultural Economics, Bachelor of Resource Economics
Lincoln is an experienced agricultural economist who joined Unique in 2018. His work focuses on the development and economic modeling of sustainable land use business models and cost-benefit analysis of forest landscape restoration (FLR), climate smart agriculture, and sustainable investment.

Malte
Viergutz
Malte
Viergutz
- IT manager
- PhD, Graduate Forest Economist

Maribel
Narváez
Maribel
Narváez
- Senior Consultant
- MSc in Chemical Engineering and MBA
Maribel Narváez Gallardo is a senior expert in the design, development, and implementation of nature-based solutions under the voluntary carbon market.
Prior to joining Unique, she has played a key role in the launch of impact investment vehicles, leveraging blended climate finance for rural development and the environment. She has primarily worked in Sub-Saharan Africa and Latin America.

Marlène
Zehfuss
Marlène
Zehfuss
- Consultant, Forestry Department
- MSc Forest Ecosystem Analysis and Information Processing
Marlène Zehfuß is an expert in forest valuation, forest inventories, geodata processing and statistical analysis. Her activities focus on management consulting for private and communal forest enterprises as well as the preparation of forest value assessments. Marlène Zehfuß is a publicly appointed and sworn expert in the field of forestry, soil and inventory valuation.

Marnix
Becking
Marnix
Becking
- Chief Technical Advisor for the KfW-supported REDD Early Movers Program in Colombia
- MSc in Tropical Ecology
Marnix Becking has 30 years of professional experience in planning, implementation, M&E of international cooperation projects. His expertise is REDD+ and conservation & sustainable use of natural resources. He has been working from Latin America since 2010.

Matthias
Dees
Matthias
Dees
- Lead Forest Inventory and Statistics, Forestry Department
- Prof. PhD. for Forest Inventory and Remote Sensing, Graduate Forest Economist
Matthias Dees is an expert in forest inventories, remote sensing and geoinformation systems. He has many years of worldwide experience in method development, design and implementation of inventories, and monitoring. Matthias teaches forest inventory and remote sensing at the University of Freiburg’s Faculty of Environment and Natural Resources.

Matthias
Wenzel
Matthias
Wenzel
- Senior Consultant Forest Planning and Conservation, Forestry Department
- Graduate Forestry Economist, assessor of the forest service
Matthias Wenzel is a technical leader in forest management planning, forest inventory and forest nature conservation. He is a publicly appointed expert in forestry. His core activities are forest management in municipal forests, operational assessments in private forests and the processing of nature conservation issues, including the coordination of mapping for ecological management plans.

Maximilian
Roth
Maximilian
Roth
- Director Vietnam Office
- BSc International Forest Ecosystem Management
Maximilian Roth is a renowned expert in biodiversity, SFM, coastal protection and mangrove management. He is Unique’s country focal point for Vietnam and manages the Hue-based regional office. His regional focus is on Southeast Asia and Africa.

Maximilian
Sperlich
Maximilian
Sperlich
- Geoinformatics expert
- MSc Environmental Sciences
Maximilian Sperlich’s core competencies are geoinformatics and big data management. Maximilian works on the development of software for use in the forestry sector with a focus on the acquisition and analysis of remote sensing based data.

Monika
Kolb
Monika
Kolb
- Administrative Assistant
- MA Educational Science and German Studies

Nathaniel
Allen
Nathaniel
Allen
- DevOps Engineer
- MSc Landscape Ecology & BSc Computer Science
Nathaniel Allen is a full-stack software engineer with over 8 years of experience in test-driven application development, development of DevOps infrastructure, and a touch of product management. He extended this experience into the “real” world by writing a Master’s thesis combining drone photogrammetry and deep learning in order to expedite research biodiversity S. Africa’s Fynbos.

Olivier
Wenzek
Olivier
Wenzek
- Developer
- MSc in Computer Sciences
Olivier Wenzek’s core competencies are information systems design, software architecture and data science. Olivier is responsible for the development, expansion and infrastructure of Unique’s digital tools and information systems. His work focuses on the design of web-based solutions, DevOps and programming.

Patricia
Holter
Patricia
Holter
- Consultant, Forestry Department
- MSc Forest Sciences
The core competence of Patricia Holter is to transform remotely sensed data into knowledge for forest ecology and forest management. Her work focuses on the collection, statistical analysis and provision of forest-related geodata for the monitoring of biodiversity and carbon as well as change detection and inventories. She is specialized in the data analysis of terrestrial LiDAR data.

Paul
Borsy
Paul
Borsy
- Senior Consultant, Agriculture and Rural Development Department
- Master of Forestry
Paul Borsy is an expert in rural development and resource management. His work focuses on the development, evaluation and supervision of long and short-term projects in the areas of resource management, biodiversity, climate change, agriculture and renewable energy. Mr. Borsy is active in Africa, South America and Asia.

Paul
Jacovelli
Paul
Jacovelli
- Lead Forester, Climate Department
- MSc Forestry/Land Management
Paul Jacovelli has extensive experience – primarily in Africa and Asia – and specializes in sustainable forest management for the production of timber, bioenergy and other value-added products. His particular focus is the development of incentive systems and support structures for smaller investors in plantations.

Paula
Glenz
Paula
Glenz
- Trainee
- Msc Forest Sciences
Paula Glenz holds an MSc in International Forestry and is specialized in the development and implementation of forest projects for climate adaptation. She particularly focuses on silvicultural adaptation measures and financing mechanisms within the voluntary carbon market. Her current project focus is on sustainable land use and afforestation/reforestation projects.

Shimels
Wassie
Shimels
Wassie
- Consultant, Agriculture and Rural Development Department
- PhD and MSc Agricultural Science
Shimels Eshete Wassie is an expert in sustainable livestock management. His work focuses on analytical studies of dairy production and ‘monitoring, reporting and verification’ (MRV) of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from livestock production. He also develops climate change adaptation and mitigation strategies through ‘nationally determined contributions’ (NDCs) from the livestock sector. His regional focus is on East Africa.

Signe
Nelgen
Signe
Nelgen
- Senior Consultant, Agriculture and Rural Development Department
- PhD Agricultural Economics
Signe Nelgen is an international expert in sustainable agriculture and food systems. She focuses both on conducting data-intensive projects, such as global trade, market policy and food security, and on projects using qualitative methods. The latter includes food consumer behaviour and conservation projects. Among others, Ms. Nelgen has worked for the World Bank and the Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations.

Simon
Charré
Simon
Charré
- Senior Consultant, Agriculture and Rural Development Department
- MSc Agricultural Development and Economic Policy
Simon Charré is an expert in natural resource management, particularly mountain forests and rangeland resources. His work focuses on developing value chains for non-timber forest products and strengthening cooperation between authorities, local NGOs and international organizations. Simon Charré’s regional focus is Central Asia and the Caucasus.

Suzanne
van Dijk
Suzanne
van Dijk
- Senior Consultant, Agriculture and Rural Development Department
- MSc Animal Sciences
Suzanne van Dijk is an expert in sustainable livestock management. She focuses on projects related to climate smart agriculture, sustainable dairy production systems and value chain development for smallholder farmers. She also analyzes the impacts of climate change and uses them to develop practical recommendations for agribusinesses. Suzanne’s regional focus is Europe and East Africa.

Thilo
van Schwamen
Thilo
van Schwamen
- Trainee
- MSc Forest Sciences, Major in International Forestry
Thilo van Schwamen holds a MSc in Forest Sciences and is specialized in the development and implementation of sustainable grassland management projects for climate change mitigation. His main focus is the quantification of greenhouse gas benefits of these rangeland projects and the assessment of their financial viability. His current project focus is on sustainable rangeland management in Eastern and Southern Africa.

Thomas
Asbeck
Thomas
Asbeck
- Deputy Head of Forestry Department
- PhD and MSc in Conservation and Forest Use
Thomas Asbeck specializes in silvicultural and conservation issues in Central Europe and Scandinavia. His knowledge mainly relates to integrative management strategies with the aim of preserving important forest structure elements in the context of climate change.

Titis
Apdini
Titis
Apdini
- Junior Consultant, Agriculture and Rural Development Department
- MSc Animal Sciences
Titis Apdini has focused her expertise on sustainable livestock management. She focuses on the analysis of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from livestock and the identification of GHG mitigation options. She has developed experience in dairy production systems in the tropics such as Kenya, Brazil, Costa Rica and Indonesia. She is familiar with the role of livestock in circular food systems through her previous experience at Wageningen University & Research, the Netherlands.

Veronica
Alonso
Veronica
Alonso
- Consultant, Forestry Department
- MBA and MSc in Energy Management
Veronica Alonso’s work focuses on business and macroeconomic analyses for projects in Latin America, Asia and Africa. In the context of value chain and sector studies, she prepares surveys and analytical tools. She also develops business models for companies and investment projects.

Veronica
Lisini Baldi
Veronica
Lisini Baldi
- Consultant. Agriculture and Rural Development Department
- MSc Environmental Sciences
Veronica Lisini Baldi is a consultant in sustainable land use and natural resource management. Her work focuses on cross-sectoral issues such as forest landscape restoration (FLR), agroforestry and capacity building. Her regional focus is East Africa and South Asia.

Vincent
von Dosky
Vincent
von Dosky
- Consultant, Forestry Department
- M.Sc. Environmental Sciences
Vincent von Dosky is an expert in forest and land use monitoring and inventories. His work focuses on terrestrial and remote sensing based forest monitoring systems, geoinformatics and data analytics. Outside of Central Europe, he has regional experience in Africa, as well as South and Central Asia.
Career
We employ both experienced professionals and young talents from a variety of fields ranging from natural resource management, forestry and timber management to agriculture, rural development and climate change.
Organization and locations
Unique was founded in 1998 and is headquartered in Freiburg, Germany. Offices in Paraguay and Vietnam, as well as team members in Ethiopia, Uganda, Kenya, India, Kyrgyzstan, Serbia, Argentina, Colombia and the United Kingdom strengthen our regional presence.
Our publications show the range of diverse topics that our project teams work on. We share our knowledge for a better future for all.