James Honey
Baja CA Sur Regional Deputy Director
James Honey has nearly 20 years’ experience in coordination of complex environmental and economic solutions, and more recently, in business development and management. He has extensive experience facilitating broad coalitions of diverse actors toward common social, economic, ecological and policy goals. Over a 10 year period, as a Program Director at Sustainable Northwest in Portland, Oregon, Honey stewarded the development, negotiation, signing and early implementation of the most comprehensive river restoration project in the United States – the Klamath Basin Agreements – which were unfortunately stalled in the political process. The agreement sought to protect a $600 million dollar agricultural and a $200 million commercial fishing economy, restore culturally-critical indigenous fisheries, and bring peace to long-standing conflict among local tribal, agricultural and fishing communities.
Since 2012, Honey has operated as an independent consultant in for- and non-profit enterprises in Mexico, including hybrid ventures. He served as the chief coordinator for “El Mangle,” a social change and philanthropic investment incubator in La Paz, Baja California Sur financed in part by related for-profit hospitality ventures. At El Mangle, James moved the project from concept to a set of operational businesses and a growing social innovation network. As a consultant in Mexico, James has advised or led ventures including statewide strategies for renewable energy generation and education reform, real-estate and agricultural development and investment, and sustainable tourism efforts, among others.
During his 10 year tenure in Oregon, James worked with values-added businesses in agriculture and forestry, including in the expansion of Country Natural Beef, the West’s largest rancher-owned sustainable beef cooperative. James has been recognized for his work by the Quivira Coalition, the Watershed Management Society, the Pacific Northwest Office of the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation, and is a fellow of the American Marshall Memorial Fund and the Center for Whole Communities. Born and raised in Mexico, James is a citizen of Mexico and the United States, and an Honors graduate of Stanford University, where he studied Latin American history, conservation and development.
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