Paul Opanga is the Labour Issues Manager at the Forest Stewardship Council, a position he has held since 1st May 2017. Mr Opanga has been coordinator of the ILO Core Conventions Working Group which developed ILO Generic Criteria and Indicators which was approved by FSC International Board in August 2017. Before taking that position, he had been with FSC for nearly three and half years as the Sub regional coordinator for East Africa. He has worked closely with stakeholders in grounding the Standard Development Group (SDG) in Tanzania and initiating dialogue with stakeholders on forest certification in the East Africa sub region.

Previously before joining FSC, Paul Opanga was the Regional Education Officer for Building and Wood Workers International (BWI) Africa and Middle East region. In this capacity he initiated training and capacity programmes for trade unions in forestry and construction sectors and engaged social partners on decent work agenda as well as integration of ILO Standards, in addition  coordinated forestry activities within BWI sectors in Africa as well as developed projects on Occupational Health Safety (OHS), HIV prevention and control at workplace.

Apart from labour issues, he has experienced in community forestry where he worked closely with communities in dry-land restoration project in Kenya.