Todd Gartner

Director, Cities4forests and Natural Infrastructure Initiative @World Resources Institute

Todd leads a multidisciplinary global team (25+ staff) with a mission to better conserve, manage and restore forests, working landscapes, and urban green infrastructure. In his role, Todd is responsible for overall leadership, strategy, management, partnerships, and fundraising for these initiatives. Todd directs Cities4Forests, a coalition of more than 65 cities from around the world involving mayors’ offices and other city agencies, such as public water utilities and offices of sustainability. Cities4Forests encourages peer-to-peer learning and connects cities with technical support from institutions with expertise in cities, forests, climate crisis, water, communications, finance, policy, and social equity. The initiative supports cities around the globe to recognize their interdependence with the world’s forests and use their political, economic, and cultural power to protect and manage those forests for human well-being. Todd\'s team provides technical support to cities from Jakarta to Addis Ababa and Sao Paulo to San Francisco to better conserve, manage and restore their inner forests, including city trees, urban parks, and other green infrastructure; nearby forests, such as watersheds; and faraway forests, especially tropical forests. We assist cities by inspiring political action and engagement, providing technical assistance, building capacity, and facilitating economic analysis, finance, and investment. Todd also leads WRI’s Natural Infrastructure Initiative, which works to scale up nature-based solutions for water, climate and disaster risk mitigation, through project development, economic analysis and financing strategies. His team works closely with key decision-makers, such as utilities, investors and local and national governments to finance green infrastructure, pilot innovative projects and scale successful approaches.