Videos
Featured Scientist: Alessandro Baccini, Ph.D. Assistant Scientist and Wayne Walker, Ph.D. Assistant Scientist
Project: Pan-Tropical Mapping
Indigenous peoples of the Amazon basin have a special stake in the maintenance of tropical forests. As Amazon forests are cleared for timber production, cattle ranching, and industrial agriculture, indigenous communities risk losing their homes, livelihoods, traditional ways of life and, hence, their cultural identity. Through the UNFCCC and other international initiatives, progress is being made on the design of incentive-based policy mechanisms to compensate tropical nations for reducing greenhouse gas emissions from deforestation and forest degradation (REDD). Indigenous participation in the development of REDD is recognized as being critical to the success of any emissions-reduction program. WHRC scientists, Drs. Baccini and Walker, are involved in capacity building activities focused on indigenous peoples of the Amazon Basin, transferring knowledge on the role that forests and carbon play in climate change mitigation while developing skills needed for their effective participation in REDD.
Video: Produced by Research Associate Kathleen Savage.
Images: Logging barge, Iquitos Peru. Scientists’ photo taken during an indigenous cultural event in Puyo Ecuador. Courtesy of Wayne Walker. Composite design by Development Solutions of New England (DSNE).
