This is a brief document to orient us to a slate of people that might be involved and to give us a template that we can modify to fit a successful conference plan, perhaps based on the Reconciliation model.
This draft plan is broken into three broad sections—the first is to showcase the Amazon’s importance in biodiversity, ecosystem function, and indigenous culture. I might add a talk in here about its broader cultural influence—I think people would be interested in hearing an overview of its effects on 18th and 19th century scientific thought and literature, as well as its superlatives in terms of biodiversity and ecosystem services.
This draft plan is broken into three broad sections—the first is to showcase the Amazon’s importance in biodiversity, ecosystem function, and indigenous culture. I might add a talk in here about its broader cultural influence—I think people would be interested in hearing an overview of its effects on 18th and 19th century scientific thought and literature, as well as its superlatives in terms of biodiversity and ecosystem services.
The second section talks about threats to the Amazon, and I have centered it on deforestation and land use change and the political forces that drive it.
The third section is based on solutions—what we can do to change the future of the Amazon. I have included players that I think are important but, again, we should consult with others.
Another conception would be to organize it as Amazon Past, Amazon Present, and Amazon Future. The first would be much the same as the showcase section, the second would talk about the current state of deforestation and biodiversity, and the future would present a vision for the Amazon and scenarios for development and conservation.
There are many more that can be included. I think this might make for a good starting point, though, that we can modify with further consultation. Our next step should be contacting a couple of these people to help refine the invitee list. I suggest that Dan Nepstad be contacted and given a free hand to pick and suggest people. Dan is a major force in the science and conservation of the Amazon and will be able to tailor the list towards the people most important to have in the room.
Finally, I have focused this on Brazilians, leaving out the Andean countries that also have Amazonian lowlands.
Amazon the Exceptional
This session presents the importance of Amazonia in global biodiversity, ecosystem function, and cultural diversity.
Thomas Lovejoy is a tropical biologist and conservation biologist who has worked in the Brazilian Amazon since 1965. He is chief biodiversity adviser to the president of the World Bank, senior adviser to the president of the United Nations Foundation, and president of the Heinz Center for Science, Economics, and the Environment. He introduced the term biological diversity to the scientific community in 1980. An excerpt from his 2000 Reith Lecture can be found here.
HRH Charles, Prince of Wales has been a forward-thinking conservation advocate since the early 1980s. The Prince's Rainforest Project is a large conservation efforts working to end deforestation.
Edward O. Wilson is the world’s leading voice on biodiversity and its importance. He is Pellegrino University Professor at Harvard University. In addition to two Pulitzer Prizes (one of which he shares with Bert Hölldobler), Wilson has won many scientific awards, including the National Medal of Science and the Crafoord Prize of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences.
Amazon Threatened
This session outlines the major threats to the Amazon, including deforestation and biodiversity loss. A name that I removed, but that might be good, would be the climatologist John Schellnhuber to give an overview of the importance of the Amazon to global climate.
Carlos Nobre is a Brazilian climate scientist working on climate and climate change in the Amazon. He is the chair of the scientific committee of the International Geosphere-Biosphere Program and an ex-officio member of the International Human Dimensions Programme on Global Environmental Change. He was director of the Large-Scale Biosphere-Atmosphere experiment in the Amazon (LBA), and is head researcher at the Brazilian National Institute for Space Research. He won the 2009 Brazil Environment Personality Award for the contributions he has made towards an understanding of global warming and the impacts of climate change on the Amazon.
Marina Silva is a Brazilian environmentalist and politician and defender of the Amazon. She was a colleague of Chico Mendes and a member of the Partido dos Trabalhadores until 2009. She served as a senator before becoming environmental minister in 2003. In 1996 she shared a Goldman Environmental Prize with Cristina Narbona Ruiz, in 2007 the United Nations Environment Programme named her a "Champion of the Earth" and in 2009 she won the Sophie Prize.
James Nachtwey is an American photojournalist and the most decorated war photographer of our time. He will complete a project on the Amazon this year which would make an excellent witness to the destruction.
Carlos Peres was born in Belém, Brazil, in 1963 and grew up on his father's ranch in eastern Pará, consisting largely of primary forest. For the last 20 years he has been studying wildlife community ecology in Amazonian forests and the biological criteria for designing nature reserves. He currently is involved in four research programs on the ecology of key timber and nontimber forest resources in different parts of Amazonia. He has published over 160 papers on neotropical forest ecology and conservation at scales ranging from single populations to entire regional landscapes. In 1995 he received a "Biodiversity Conservation Leadership Award," and in 2000 he was elected an "Environmentalist Leader for the New Millennium" by Time Magazine. He is currently (2009) a Full Professor at the University of East Anglia, UK, and divides his time between Norwich and fieldwork in the Brazilian Amazon.
Amazon Solutions
Daniel Nepstad is a senior scientist at Woods Hole Research Center and one of the leading voices in both understanding and ending Amazonian deforestation. His recent article in Science, The end of deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon, provides a road-map using market forces to end deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon with up to 80% of forests still standing.
Carlos Minc is a Brazilian geographer, professor, environmentalist, politician and Minister of Environment in Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva's second term as president of Brazil.
Antonio Brack Egg is the Minister of the Environment of Peru and a prolific scientist working on Peruvian Biodiversity and sustainable development.
Brenda Brito (Executive Director) or Richard Schneider (President of Board of Directors and Economist at the World Bank) from Imazon, the Amazon Institute of People and the Environment (www.imazon.org.br).
Turid Rodrigues Eusébio, Norway’s ambassador to Brazil. Norway has invested $1B in a partnership with Brazil to slow deforestation.
Blairo Maggi is the governor of the state of Mato Grosso in Brazil and also the world’s largest soybean producer. He received the Golden Chainsaw Award from Greenpeace in 2003 for being the Brazilian most responsible for the destruction of the Amazon. He has since appeared to have changed his thinking, hosting a forest ecosystem services conference. He could be a very interesting and controversial addition to the conference: see http://www.economist.com/world/americas/displaystory.cfm?story_id=E1_TPQJGDSV for more details.
Juma Sustainable Development Project administered by the Sustainable Amazon Foundation. Luiz Fernando Furlan is their director. http://www.fas-amazonas.org/en/
It might be nice to have such a successful demonstration project.
