Tasila Banda

Dr. Tasila Banda serves as Director, REDD+ Program Development and Innovation, in Verra’s Program Development and Innovation Department. Tasila has international experience with private sector, governments, UN agencies, the World Bank, and NGOs in Africa, Asia, Europe, and the United States.

Before joining Verra, Tasila was a Regional Technical Advisor on Sustainable Land Management and Ecosystem Restoration at the UNDP. Prior to this she was the National Coordinator for the World Bank-financed Zambia Integrated Forest Landscape Programme, which is housed in the Ministry of Green Economy and Environment in Zambia, where she led the preparation of Zambia’s first jurisdictional carbon emissions reductions programme under the Initiative for Sustainable Forest Landscapes’ BioCarbon Fund (ISFL).

Tasila brings a great deal of experience with REDD+, as she previously worked as the International Technical Advisor for the development of the UN-REDD National Strategy for Uganda. Before joining the UNDP, Tasila worked with the USAID/US Forest Service International Programs as the Technical Advisor for Low Emissions Development Strategies in Zambia.

In the Netherlands, Tasila worked at Face the Future as a forest carbon development manager where she applied Verra’s VCS and CCB methodologies to multiple projects. At CAMCO Clean Energy, Tasila was the Team Leader for the development of the FREL for Nepal, and also led the team responsible for conducting scoping studies for REDD+ for the Mau Forest Complex in Kenya. Prior to that, Tasila was the project manager for a cookstove project in Katete, Zambia, which was accredited under the CDM.

Tasila has also been the Zambia Representative to Carbon Offsetting and Reduction Scheme for International Aviation (CORSIA)’s Technical Advisory Body, a non-executive Director for WeForest Zambia, a Board Member of the Zambia Community-Based Natural Resources Forum, a member of the FAO’s Forest Farm Forum Committee in Zambia, and a Co-Founder of the Network of African Women in Environment (NAWE).

Tasila holds a Ph.D. in Conservation Ecology from the University of California, Davis (USA), a Master of Science degree in Environmental Studies from Arizona State University, Tempe (USA), and a Bachelor of Science degree in Natural Resource Management from the University of Zambia. Tasila is currently based in Pennsylvania.