Christian del Valle is a founder and Managing Partner of Althelia Ecosphere and Althelia Climate Fund GP. Previously, he served as Director of Environmental Markets & Forestry with BNP Paribas. He led BNP Paribas’ movement into the Forest Carbon space, with a particular focus on community-based REDD+ in Africa and Latin America. Amongst his achievements there was the execution of one of the first-ever large private sector interventions in REDD+, through the creation of financing framework for African forest carbon projects with Wildlife Works LLC. Mr. del Valle has been engaged on the policy side of REDD+, where working through organizations such as International Emissions Trading Association (IETA) and Carbon Market and Investors Association (CMIA), he has interfaced extensively with national governments and via the UNFCCC. He serves as an advisor to the Forum on Readiness for REDD, the American Carbon Registry and is on the project board of the World Economic Forum’s Project on Sustainable Land-use Finance. He holds a MSc in Conservation Biology from the Durrell Institute of Conservation & Ecology at the University of Kent (Canterbury).