Knut Øistad

Forester (Cand. Agric - M.Sc). from University of Life Sciences, Norway and University of Minnesota, USA.  Experience as researcher, as chief Regional (subnational) forester in the forest owners association, as advisor and head of unit in the Norwegian Research Council, and as Deputy Director General in Ministry of Agriculture responsible for national and international forest policy activities. Øistad has served as counsellor for agriculture, forestry and rural development, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Mission of Norway to the EU in Brussels. In Brussels the main topics was agricultural and rural development policies, trade in agricultural products and climate change. From 2016-2019, Øistad served as Head of Department/Head of Research, Department of Economics and Society in the Norwegian Institute of Bioeconomy Research (NIBIO). Currently he is working with national and international forest policy at the same institute.

Knut Øistad has been the head of the Norwegian delegation to various intergovernmental deliberations on forests. He was chair of the second session United Nations Forum on Forests (UNFF). Øistad has been Norwegian coordinator for Forest Europe including for the preparations in the Ministry of Agriculture and Food for the Forest Europe Ministerial Conference in Oslo in June 2011. Øistad has been member of the Norwegian delegation to the UNFCCC climate change negotiations for a number of years, focusing on negotiations on land use, land use change and forestry (LULUCF) and agriculture. Knut Øistad was the head of the Norwegian delegation to the negotiations on a legally binding agreement on forests in Europe. Øistad was chair of the board of European Forest Institute EFI from 2017 to 2020.