Dr. Cisneros’ professional experience comprises both technical and management aspects of rural development and environmental issues. During the last 15 years he has worked as a research scientist, entrepreneur, consultant and manager. He is familiar with issues and trends of rural development and the environment at local, national, Andean and global levels. His duties have included project design, planning, coordination, implementation, supervision, technical direction, promotion, negotiation, reporting and financial procurement, among others.

For the past two years he has coordinated the Consortium for the Sustainable Development of the Andean Ecoregion (CONDESAN), a dynamic platform that integrates research with rural development in the highlands of the Andes, from Venezuela to the northwestern region of Argentina.

Previous to CONDESAN, Dr. Cisneros led CARE-Peru Rural Development & Environment (RDE) Division for five years towards new challenges, approaches and strategies including partnership promotion, self-learning methodologies, local capacity building, private sector involvement in rural business development, demand-driven supply for income generation activities (farming and off-farm activities), product diversification, access to financial services, natural resource management, promotion of second level farmer organizations, private technical assistance schemes and responsible environment management.

Before joining CARE in May 1997, Dr. Cisneros worked as a consultant and business entrepreneur both through his company (Consultores Forestales Asociados S.A.) and as an individual, participating and numerous and varied studies, consultancies and businesses related to national and international forestry. He has designed and directed projects funded by public and private agencies in areas of rural development, forest research, forest industry and markets, reduction of environmental impacts due to industry processes and others. He also has teaching experience at universities in Peru and Canada. In the early nineties, Dr. Cisneros worked as a research scientist at the Resource Evaluation Division of the Pulp and Paper Research Institute of Canada (PAPRICAN) in Vancouver; his work focused mainly on research activities dealing with industry applications in relation to wood and fiber characteristics and behavior. Projects included hardwood mechanical pulping alternatives; evaluation of clones of fast-growing hybrid trees; wood and fiber properties of juvenile and mature trees; tension wood on hardwoods; wood anatomy; wood chemistry; and effects of silvi-cultural treatments on wood and fiber properties.