Louis Putzel is a senior scientist with CIFOR’s Forests and Governance Programme in Bogor, Indonesia. He currently focuses on two main CIFOR projects: Chinese trade and investment in Africa: Assessing and governing trade-offs to national economies, local livelihoods and forest ecosystems and Policy and regulatory options to recognise and better integrate the domestic timber sector in tropical countries. Prior to joining CIFOR, Louis Putzel was associated with the New York Botanical Garden's Institute for Economic Botany as a biology doctoral student in the CUNY Plant Sciences programme, where he completed a dissertation related to the Chinese timber trade in Peruvian Amazonia and the growing demand for shihuahuaco (Dipteryx spp.), a valuable and ecologically important hardwood timber. He previously worked in the field of conflict resolution in central Africa as well as in the private sector in Hong Kong and China.