InFO News

“Michelle Gauthier loved trees. She dedicated her professional life to trees: for food and nutrition security, for energy, for making greener cities, for better watershed management, for reducing pollution. The question was always: how can trees make life better?” Julien Custot, FAO, February 2013.

 “We do not know many people like Michelle with such outstanding planetary experience on trees outside forests, broad understanding of their multiple benefits to people and love for them. She succeeded in giving justice to this important component of forestry and excelled in networking with specialists around the world.  In losing Michelle, FAO lost a confirmed expert and trees outside forests lost an indisputable advocate.”   Mohamed Saket, February 2013

Michelle joined FAO in January 1994 as an Associate Professional Officer in the Community Forestry Unit of the Forestry Department. In the same year she was the focal point for the West Africa team in the Forest, Trees and People Programme. Her strong commitment and conviction about doing the right thing for people established this team as a promoter of rights for forest and tree-dependent communities in the region.  She was also the coordinator of the team that developed the Community Forestry and Conflict Management Programme, overcoming tremendous difficulties and challenges to set up, in 1995, FAO’s first email conference connecting universities, technicians, user-group federations, Forest Trees and People Programme facilitators and their networks. She then became part of the Forest Assessment, Management and Conservation Division, where she was responsible for the agroforestry and urban and peri-urban forestry programmes, areas of work in which she believed passionately. Michelle was a respected professional in these fields and she worked tirelessly to promote them, including through FAO interdepartmental working groups and regional and global organizations and networks. She was greatly appreciated and admired by her colleagues at FAO and by experts and practitioners globally for her experience, expert contributions, commitment, analytical skills and cross-sectoral vision. A recent interview with UN Radio Information provides a glimpse of her commitment.

Michelle was an advocate of the benefits of agroforestry for the poor, and she focused much of her efforts on furthering the acceptance of agroforestry at the local level and in national policies. She realized that the wealth of valuable information and knowledge in this field needed to be captured, and recently commissioned two publications that will help mainstream sustainable agroforestry worldwide. Advancing agroforestry on the policy agenda – a guide for decision-makers and Towards the assessment of trees outside forests. An online learning event that she co-organized in her last weeks can be found here.

Michelle also had a strong role in the FAO Food for the Cities Programme, based on her recognition of the fundamental importance of urban–rural linkages in energy, forestry and nutrition and other crosscutting issues. A recent interview on the greening of urban areas can be seen here.

Michelle will be remembered by her colleagues and friends as a dedicated professional with a warm smile, who, through her perseverance, passion and energy, and frank and direct statements, made an important contribution to the lives of many and helped gain greater acceptance of the agroforestry paradigm within development circles. The passion and commitment that she had for her work was matched by her commitment and loyalty to her friends and working teams. She will also be remembered as a loving mother to Lin Wan, her daughter. A farewell ceremony to honour Michelle’s memory and life took place on Friday, 22 February, at the Campo Verano cemetery in Rome.

“Life is so capricious. The last time I saw Michelle, nothing told me that there would be so sudden an end to her genuine and sunny smile. It is always so difficult to come to terms with the fact that people who mean so much to us are there one moment and the next they are gone.  Adieu Michelle, rest in eternal peace.”  Erasmus Moyo, FAO, February 2013