International Rivers is proud to announce the appointment of two new board members: Branden Barber and Marion Adeney.
Branden Barber has been CEO of Rainforest Rescue since 2018, leading efforts to protect and restore the Daintree Rainforest—Earth’s longest-thriving tropical rainforest. With over 30 years of leadership in social impact and for-profit sectors in Australia and the US, Branden brings deep expertise in organizational development, stakeholder engagement, and environmental advocacy.
Under his leadership, Rainforest Rescue has scaled its restoration work, launched a large-scale native nursery, and strengthened partnerships with Indigenous communities, scientists, conservation groups, and local councils. Branden is passionate about creating systemic solutions to the climate and biodiversity crises and works to build lasting impact through collaboration, restoration, and regenerative practice.
Marion Adeney is Director of Amazon and Fire Programs at Conservation X Labs (CXL). A conservation ecologist with a broad interdisciplinary background, Marion is an expert in fire, biodiversity, landscape, and tropical ecology. She has more than twenty years of experience working on tropical forest conservation, with a focus on the Amazon region.
Committed to working at the intersection of environmental conservation, science, innovation, and development, Marion’s current focus is leveraging the best of global open innovation to collaborate with placed-based knowledge to reimagine our collective approaches to conservation and sustainable development. Prior to joining CXL, Marion led the Brazil portfolio for the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation’s Andes-Amazon Initiative from 2016–2021 and previously worked as a Science Advisor and on strategy development for the US Agency for International Development’s Regional, Peru, and Brazil Amazon programs. Marion has a PhD in Conservation Ecology from Duke University and is professionally fluent in Spanish and Portuguese and proficient in Bahasa Indonesia.
We are honored to welcome Branden and Marion to our board as we continue advancing the rights of communities and the protection of rivers worldwide.