Daniel Katz

Who is Daniel Katz?

Daniel Katz is an American environmentalist writer, speaker and activist. He is currently the Senior Program Director at The Overbrook Foundation, where he leads environmental giving in the areas of biodiversity conservation, sustainability and climate change.

Katz was instrumental in initiating the rainforest conservation movement when he co-founded the Rainforest Alliance in 1986 at the age of 24. The Rainforest Alliance is a non-governmental organization that focuses on environmental conservation throughout the world. Under Katz's leadership, the Rainforest Alliance became the first nonprofit organization to create a global program to monitor, evaluate, certify and audit forests. The Rainforest Alliance is known world-wide for creating independent third-party certification in forestry, agriculture and tourism. He was the Executive Director of the Rainforest Alliance from its inception until 2000; today he serves as the Chairman of the Rainforest Alliance board.

He has campaigned against the wastefulness of mail-order catalogs, of which the average household receives about 114 a year.