Mathew Jacobson
The environmental challenges that matter most are rarely solved by a single organization. They are solved when people with very different interests find enough shared purpose to move together.
For more than thirty years, through leadership roles at Greenpeace, MoveOn, The Pew Charitable Trusts, McAllister Opinion Research, Meridian Institute, and Stand.earth, I have built and led coalitions and campaigns that bring together Indigenous leaders, governments, companies, investors, scientists, and civil society organizations to protect intact forests and biodiversity, shift markets, and advance durable environmental policy.
That work starts from a simple premise: people act on their values and their sense of identity before they act on data. It traces back to my conservation work at Pew, where I used public opinion research to shape campaign strategy — and later to a stint at McAllister Opinion Research, where I sat at the hinge point between researchers and campaigners, translating one into the other. I still start strategy the same way: turning people's deeply held beliefs into action for the environment.
From grassroots organizing to executive strategy, one question has guided my work: How do we bring together unlikely allies to achieve outcomes that seem impossible?
I am most energized by work at the intersection of environmental protection, business, finance, politics, and human relationships. Whether facilitating negotiations among longtime adversaries or bringing unlikely partners together around a common strategy, I build the trust necessary for ambitious change.
Active Work
JBS & Cargill DCF Campaigns
Leading campaigns targeting JBS and Cargill — among the world's largest agribusiness companies — to break the link between their supply chains and Amazon deforestation and ecosystem conversion, engaging institutional investors, company owners, financial institutions, major retailers, and policy makers across the US, EU, Brazil, and China. Secured a landmark commitment from Cargill to eliminate deforestation and conversion from its supply chain in Brazil, Argentina, and Uruguay across soy, corn, wheat, and cotton.
International Campaign to Defend the Amazon (ICDA)
Founding and directing the ICDA — a coalition of Brazilian frontline organizations, international NGOs, and research institutions working to defend the Amazon against large-scale ecological destruction, and to expand deforestation- and conversion-free commitments across commodities and tropical ecosystems globally.
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1
Built and led the grassroots coalition that secured and defended the U.S. Roadless Rule, protecting more than 60 million acres of national forests.
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2
Built and led the coalition campaign that won protection for an area of Québec's Boreal Forest more than twice the size of the entire U.S. National Park System.
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3
Worked alongside Indigenous leaders from around the world to reshape UNESCO's World Heritage policies to recognize Indigenous rights and the relationship between cultural and natural heritage.
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4
Built a broad coalition in Northern Manitoba — bringing together Indigenous chiefs, mayors, chambers of commerce, industry, and conservationists — to win protection and sustainable development policies for the province's Boreal Forest.
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5
Served as an integral part of the interim secretariat at Meridian Institute to launch the Nature Crime Alliance.
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6
Established and directed Meridian Institute's EUDR Strategic Support Center, building the coalition that drove passage of the EU's landmark law prohibiting the import of goods linked to deforestation.