Karl Hansen

Karl Hansen is Estonian-Canadian and spent much of his childhood in Saint Lucia and Costa Rica. He graduated from Trinity College, University of Toronto with a degree in Geography and Commerce. From 1988 he worked as an environmental journalist, researching and reporting from rainforests around the world. In 1990 he won a Rhodes Scholarship to study at Merton College, Oxford, where he completed graduate degrees in forestry, anthropology and agricultural economics and freelanced for Private Eye.

In 1994, Karl joined the International Institute for Sustainable Development in Canada, where he worked in communications and later led the forest programme. He attended and advised on meetings of the UN Inter-governmental Panel on Forests and the World Commission on Forests and Sustainable Development. Relocated to Oxford in 1997, he was recruited by the World Land Trust in 1999 and led the establishment of The Living Rainforest charity in 2000 and the Trust for Sustainable Living in 2007. Married with four children, he lives in the Lambourn Valley.