The executive committee

The Executive Committee (COMEX) plays a co-decision role, directly linked to the Inter-Institutional Committee. It is responsible for making all necessary decisions for the smooth operational flow of the program. It supervises the implementation of the strategy and the achievement of objectives. It communicates and reports to other committees (scientific committee, inter-institutional committee, stakeholder committee). Lastly, it ensures the program's openness to the national scientific community.
COMEX comprises INRAE directors of the PEPR (Christophe Plomion and Arnaud Sergent), along with a program manager (Fanny Gascuel), as well as members from CIRAD (Plinio Sist and Daniel Barthélémy) and CNRS (Jérôme Chave). It meets on a weekly basis.

Christophe Plomion:

Christophe Plomion is a research director at INRAE and director of the UMR "Biodiversity Genes and Community, BIOGECO" (INRAE, University of Bordeaux). He holds a Ph.D. in quantitative genetics from the Ecole Nationale Supérieure Agronomique de Rennes. He served as deputy head of the department of forest, grassland, and aquatic ecology (EFPA) at INRAE from 2008 to 2018. He has extensive experience in managing large national and European projects and has coordinated an IUFRO working group for five years. He is currently the deputy editor-in-chief of the Journal Tree Physiology.

Arnaud Sergent:

Arnaud Sergent is a research engineer within the UR "Environment, Territories in Transition, Infrastructures, Societies, ETTIS" (INRAE Bordeaux). He holds a degree in agricultural and forestry engineering from Bordeaux Sciences Agro, supplemented by training in tropical geography (University Bordeaux Montaigne) and political science (Sciences Po Bordeaux). He holds a Ph.D. in political science from Sciences Po Bordeaux. His research and teaching activities focus on forest-wood policies in France and Europe. He has extensive experience in supporting public policies and research facilitation. He is a member of the board of the competitiveness cluster Xylofutur and the editorial committee of the Revue Forestière Française.

Plinio Sist:

Plinio Sist has been the director of the Forests and Societies research unit at CIRAD since 2015. He is a forest ecologist with over 25 years of experience in South America (Brazil, Ecuador, Peru, Costa Rica) and Southeast Asia (Indonesia, Malaysia). He obtained a Ph.D. in tropical biology from the University of Paris 6 in 1989. His research focuses on better understanding the impact of forest resource exploitation on tropical forest ecology in order to recommend sustainable management practices for these forests. He is the coordinator of the "Tropical Forestry Silviculture" subdivision of IUFRO and a member of the Science Panel for the Amazon.

Daniel Barthélémy :

Daniel Barthélémy is a research director at INRAE. Since 2010, he has been seconded to CIRAD, where he served as the scientific director of the "Biological Systems" department (Bios) until 2018. Since then, he has been a mission officer with the General Directorate of CIRAD and director of the "Agriculture, Environment, Biodiversity" cluster at the University of Montpellier as part of the I-Site (PEI) excellence program. Since 2023, he has also been the scientific and technical director of the AGRO Labex (Agronomy and Sustainable Development) led by the University of Montpellier in coordination with several actors in Montpellier's scientific research community and managed by Agropolis Fondation. He holds a Ph.D. in Physiology and Biology of Organisms and Populations. He is a botanist, specializing in plant architecture, and an expert in plant botany and biodiversity, particularly in tropical regions. He has extensive experience in coordinating and managing national, European, and international projects. From 2001 to 2010, he served as deputy director and then director of the UMR Amap "Botany and Bioinformatics of Plant Architecture". During this period, he led the Pl@ntNet project, which was one of the flagship projects of Agropolis Fondation.

Jérôme Chave :

Jérôme Chave is a research director at CNRS and director of the research unit "Evolution and Biological Diversity" in Toulouse. His research focuses on the ecology and evolution of tropical forests and the role of forests in biogeochemical cycles. He is the scientific director of the Nouragues ecological research station in French Guiana and the scientific and technical director of the CEBA Laboratory of Excellence (Center for the Study of Amazonian Biodiversity).

Guillaume Decocq :

Guillaume Decocq is a research director at the CNRS, specifically within the EDYSAN research unit (UMR CNRS 7058), and a Professor at the University of Picardie Jules Verne. His research focuses on the impact of past and present human activities on plant biodiversity and the functioning of forest ecosystems.

Fanny Gascuel :

Fanny Gascuel is a research engineer in the INRAE PEPR Support Unit, serving as the manager of the FORESTT PEPR. She is a graduate of the Ecole Normale Supérieure de Lyon and holds a Ph.D. in Ecology and Evolution from the Collège de France, as well as a Master's in Business Administration from the Collège des Ingénieurs. Before joining INRAE, she served as the coordinator for workforce and competency strategic planning projects at Sanofi, and later as the manager of the Laboratories of Excellence (LabEx) DEEP and Cell(n)Scale at the Institut Curie.