Holly Marsden

Holly holds an MSc in Environment and Development from Lancaster University and a BA and MA in English with Drama and Education from the University of Cambridge.

Prior to joining Proforest, Holly has worked as a floral designer and project manager for large scale weddings and events for the past decade within the UK, Italy, Portugal, and Australia. She has also been leading workshops, teaching sustainable floristry practices to both the industry and public. Holly was prompted to change careers upon learning about the widescale environmental destruction connected to the global floriculture industry and of the links to human rights abuses within the global supply chain of cut flowers. She is passionate about creating fairer and more responsible global commodity supply chains and sees this as crucial to tackling both the environmental and social crises of today.

For her recent master’s dissertation Holly conducted research on environmental justice for Indigenous communities impacted by wildfires within the context of the Boreal Forest in Canada. Recently Holly has worked with ‘Guardians Worldwide,’ an NGO focussed on community led climate mitigation and forest protection within Africa and Brazil. She has been working with both Ogiek and Endorois Indigenous peoples in Kenya (both facing ongoing threats to their ancestral land rights), to establish ‘Tree Recue Hubs’ and for the creation of a women led climate mitigation project.