Dr Sara Scherr is an agricultural and natural resource economist who has worked to advance inclusive agricultural development and sustainable land management policy in tropical developing countries. She has been a prominent voice in promoting the restoration of degraded agricultural landscapes for food security and rural livelihoods. Her current focus is on mechanisms and strategies to finance regenerative investment at landscape scale.
In 2002, she founded EcoAgriculture Partners, a non-profit organization advancing integrated landscape analysis, management and policy innovations, which she serves as CEO. Furthermore, she is Chair of the Landscapes for People, Food and Nature initiative, which promotes global, cross-sector analysis, knowledge-sharing and collaborative action for ILM.
Before that, she held positions as Director of Ecosystem Services at Forest Trends, senior researcher at the International Food Policy Research Institute, co-leader of the CGIAR Gender Program, and as a principal researcher and later on the Board of the World Agroforestry Centre. She serves on the non-profit boards of Biodiversity International-USA and Solutions from the Land, and on advisory boards of Food Tank, the Platform for Agrobiodiversity Research, and the Multi-Stakeholder Platform (MSP) Charter Advisory Council, as well as many journal editorial boards.
Dr Sara Scherr was awarded a Fulbright Scholar, and received her MSc and PhD in International Economics and Development at Cornell University in New York.