Craig Beatty is the manager of forest strategy and research at WWF-US. In this position, he provides technical and scientific leadership to the organization’s major forest initiatives. His work includes helping lead the development of a corporate framework for setting science-based targets for nature; creating methods and tools to estimate conservation and restoration impact; and exploring the role forests play in human health. Craig also acts as an adviser on restoration at WWF due to his extensive background and fieldwork in forest landscape restoration (FLR).

Before joining WWF, Craig road tested the Restoration Opportunities Assessment Methodology for six years at the International Union for Conservation of Nature. He has facilitated the capacity development, spatial analysis, and policy and institutional analysis required for national and subnational assessments of restoration opportunities in dozens of countries. This included partnering and traveling with the US Forest Service International Programs to deliver an international seminar on FLR from 2015 to 2019. He also developed guidance for the Convention on Biological Diversity on integrating biodiversity considerations into FLR assessment and planning and helped create the Species Threat Abatement and Restoration metric.

With a strong background in geography and ecology, Craig also led the development of the Restoration Opportunities Optimization Tool with the Natural Capital Project—a spatially explicit decision support tool that identifies areas where restoration actions can have the most impact and fewest trade-offs among people and nature.

Craig earned a bachelor of science in biology from the University of South Florida and a master of science in environmental science and policy from George Mason University.