Sten Nilsson

Professor Nilsson joined IIASA in January 1986, becoming Leader of the Forestry Program in 1990. Between 1998 and 2002 he was Counselor to the Director, and was appointed Deputy Director from July 2002 to May 2008. From May to December of 2008, he was Acting Director of IIASA. He currently holds a visiting affiliation with IIASA and can be reached at IIASAnilsson@iiasa.ac.at or at stenbnilsson@gmail,com.

A native of Sweden, Professor Nilsson has had a distinguished academic career in forest sector analysis with emphasis on policy analysis. He received his MSc in forestry from the Royal College of Forestry in Stockholm in 1971 and his PhD in economic planning from the same college in 1975. In 1976, he became Professor in economic planning at the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences. He is a working member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Agriculture and Forestry as well as of the UN Scientific Committee of Academia Istropolitana Nova, Slovakia; an Academician of the International Academy of Informatics, Russia; and more recently, Foreign Member of the Lithuanian Academy of Sciences. 

Professor Nilsson has authored and co-authored over 350 scientific publications. An expert on boreal forests and global forest sector analysis, Professor Nilsson is frequently asked to address international meetings and organizations on different issues dealing with the forest sector. He has held a number of consultancies in organizations such as The World Bank, FAO,OECD, European Commission, and SIDA.

He has served as an expert in different international organizations such as the World Commission on Forests and Sustainable Development (WCFSD), International Boreal Forest Research Association (IBFRA), International Union of Forest Research Organizations (IUFRO),Ministerial conference on the protection of Forests in Europe (MCPFE), WWF, Forest Trends, and the Rights and Resources Initiative.

Since the early 1990s, Professor Nilsson has contributed to the reports published by theIntergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) which, together with AI Gore, was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2007.

Since his retirement from the IIASA management in 2009, Professor Nilsson has been affiliated with numerous organizations, and is also CEO of the consulting firm Forest Sector Insights AB. In particular he has worked as a consultant on the transformation of the forest industry and forest sector for international organizations as well as the forest industry itself. In 2010, he was assigned as an advisor to the Forest Products Association of Canada and the Canadian Government through the Canadian Forest Service with respect to the transformation of the Canadian forest industry to a bio-oriented industry. 

Professor Nilsson has also undertaken similar assignments since 2012 with the American forest sector through Georgia Institute of Technology, in Atlanta. In 2012 – 2013, Professor Nilsson worked on behalf of the Cross-Party Committee on Environmental Objectives of the Swedish Parliament to develop a new process for the policy setting in the Swedish forest sector.

In 2014, a major working task in addition to the above is land-use, expanding agriculture and deforestation on behalf of international organizations.

Professor Nilsson is also affiliated with the European Commission and different industries on the bioeconomy-concept.