THE AUTHORS

Gary Taylor and Pat Scharlin have been a writing and policy consulting team since 1985 when they formed The Environment Group, Inc. to assist universities, government agencies, NGOs and multinational companies in understanding and responding to international environment and development challenges. The company published the successful biweekly commercial newsletter, "Environment, Health and Safety Management" from 1989 to 2000. Their combined experience and contacts in the business and not-for-profit communities gave them the insight and opportunity to get behind the spin and street rhetoric to tell the story of Chiquita Brands International and the Rainforest Alliance.

Taylor and Scharlin edited and published the Natural Resource Technical Bulletin for developing country nationals, published by the U.S. Agency for International Development. They also coordinated -- at the Tufts University International Studies Center in Talloires, France -- a series of off-the-record seminars for corporate executives and government policy makers on environment and development.

Before forming their partnership, Gary Taylor spent ten years in the corporate sector in positions of increasing responsibility at Time Inc. and as general manager of a major specialty retail firm. He then earned a doctorate at the School of Forestry and Environmental Sciences at Yale University. Taylor has served on local city councils and commissions dealing with environmental problems and as a consultant to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. He has testified and prepared technical reports for the U.S. Congress and global lending institutions on the proliferation of toxic chemicals and was a field consultant for international agencies. He was consulting principal investigator on a study at the Center for Environmental Management at Tufts University that examined environmental policy and practice in five major U.S. multinational companies and their domestic and overseas facilities.

Patricia Scharlin has been active in the international arena for her entire professional life. She was the international editor of "Environment, Health and Safety Management" since its inception. Previous to that she was editor-in-chief of publications at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace before becoming founding director of the international office of the Sierra Club. Scharlin has directed research projects and public information campaigns in Latin America on conservation and management of tropical ecosystems and has written and edited articles for publications in the United States and Europe. She has chaired the NGO Committee on Sustainable Development at the United Nations. In 1992 Scharlin was honored to be the special editor of the Overseas Press Club annual "Dateline" magazine devoted that year to environmental issues.

  

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