Etelle Higonnet is the Director of Coffee Watch.
She founded the NGO to push for reforms in the coffee industry to address abuses such as deforestation and slavery. Previously she served as Senior Advisor at the National Wildlife Federation with a focus on curbing deforestation in high-risk commodities; and before that as campaign director at Mighty Earth, where she focused on advocacy for zero deforestation in Southeast Asia, Latin America and Africa, with an emphasis on cocoa, palm oil, rubber, cattle, and soy industries.
She was named chevalier de l'ordre national du Mérite in France, in part for her work to combat deforestation and rights abuses in commodity agriculture.
Prior to her years at Mighty Earth, Etelle worked with Greenpeace Southeast Asia on a broad range of environmental issues including climate, energy, oceans, toxic waste, ecological agriculture, environmental justice and forest protection. As Greenpeace Southeast Asia Regional Research Manager, Etelle conducted or oversaw research for that region. Etelle also has experience as a researcher in human rights, having worked primarily in war zones and post-conflict areas such as Iraq and Sierra Leone. Etelle conducted human rights research in West Africa on behalf of Human Rights Watch and later Amnesty International. She developed human rights and rule of law projects in Iraq for the International Human Rights Law Institute. She served as a consultant for various governments and human rights organizations, including UNICEF, Open Society, the Iran Human Rights Documentation Center. During law school she interned at the Royal Cambodian Government Task Force for the Extraordinary Chambers and the Special Court for Sierra Leone. Etelle has written numerous articles, reports and op-eds on environmental subjects and human rights, and is the author of the book Quiet Genocide. She earned a BA from Yale University in 2000 and a JD from Yale Law School in 2005. While at the Law School, she worked on the Yale Journal of International Law and the Yale Human Rights and Development Law Journal, organized numerous talks on international human rights issues, and represented individuals seeking asylum in the United States in the Immigration Clinic. During law school, she worked as a summer associate in the New York and Paris offices of Sullivan & Cromwell. Etelle is on the board of Climate Defiance, a youth-led group which uses direct action protests to demand stronger climate policies.