Hanging In The Balance: The Future Of A Forest
Speakers
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Beto Veríssimo is a senior research and co-founder of Imazon, an NGO think-and-do tank based in the Brazilian Amazon and founded in 1990. He holds a Master’a degree in Ecology from The Pennsylvania State University (USA) and graduate degree in Agriculture Engineer from the Federal Rural University of the Brazilian Amazon. He has published more than 170 scientific and technical articles and 25 books on conservation, natural resources management and public policies. His work has helped created about 25 million hectares of Conservation Units in the Brazilian Amazon and support forest management for more than 7 million hectares. In the last years he has worked on different strategies to reduce the level of deforestation and forest degradation in the Brazilian Amazon. He is also an AVINA Fellow and Ashoka Senior Fellow. In 2010 Beto received the Skoll Foundation Award for Social Entrepreneurship. In 2014 he was selected among the top 100 most influential people in Brazil by the Época Magazine. In 2015 he received the Globo Newspaper Brazilian Award on sustainability
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I got a Bachelor degree in Geology, in Brazil, at the Pará State Federal University, an M.Sc. in Soil Science at Penn State University, and a Ph.D. in Geography at University of California in Santa Barbara. I am a senior researcher at Imazon and conduct research on spatial analysis and on remote sensing for mapping and monitoring forest changes. In 2010, I received the Skoll Award on Social Entrepreneurship in recognition to the development and operationalization of SAD - the first independent forest monitoring system in Brazil. I had also co-founded Terras App Solutions a startup company that develops geospatial Apps for rural property management, monitoring and geotraceability of agroforestry products. In 2017, I have received the Conservation Fellowship from the Mulago Foundation for the work conducted in Terras. I am also engaged in crowdsourcing mapping and capacity building using Google Earth Engine, through the MapBiomas Project in Brazil, and contributing to forest monitoring in Brazil and Pan-Amazonia countries with the RAISG Network.
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Liliana Madrigal is co-founder of the Amazon Conservation Team (ACT), created in 1996 with Dr. Mark J. Plotkin. Previously, over a decade, she led conservation efforts with the Fundacion de Parques Nacionales de Costa Rica, Conservation International, and The Nature Conservancy.
Liliana is ACT’s Senior Director of Program Operations, and serves on its board. Her special mandate is providing the vision, strategic direction, and organizational leadership to advance ACT’s mission.
In 2006, Liliana won the Circle of Bridge-Makers Award from the Angeles Arrien Foundation. She and Dr. Plotkin were co-awardees of the Skoll Award for Social Entrepreneurship in 2008. In 2017, she was awarded a residency fellowship at the Rockefeller Foundation’s Bellagio Center.
A native of Costa Rica, Liliana lives in Arlington, Virginia with her husband Dr. Mark J. Plotkin. She is a graduate of the University of California at Los Angeles.
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Dr. Mark J. Plotkin has led ACT and guided its vision since 1996, when he co-founded the organization with his fellow conservationist, Liliana Madrigal. He is a renowned ethnobotanist who has spent almost three decades studying traditional plant use with traditional healers of tropical America.
Among his many influential writings, Dr. Plotkin may be best known for his popular work Tales of a Shaman's Apprentice (1994), which has been printed continuously and has been published in multiple languages. Other works include the critically acclaimed children's book The Shaman's Apprentice - A Tale of the Amazon Rainforest, illustrated by Lynne Cherry, and Medicine Quest: In Search of Nature's Healing Secrets. His most recent book, The Killers Within: The Deadly Rise of Drug-Resistant Bacteria, coauthored with Michael Shnayerson, was selected as a Discover Magazine book of the year.
Dr. Plotkin has received the San Diego Zoo Gold Medal for Conservation; the Roy Chapman Andrews Distinguished Explorer Award; an International Conservation Leadership award from the Jane Goodall Institute; and, with Liliana Madrigal, the Skoll Foundation’s Award for Social Entrepreneurship. In 2010, he received the honorary degree of "Doctor of Humane Letters" from Lewis and Clark College in Portland, Oregon. Dr. Plotkin was educated at Harvard, Yale and Tufts University.
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Martin von Hildebrand, PhD in Ethnology, Director and Founder of Gaia Amazon Foundation. He has dedicated his life since 1970 to the defense and promotion of the rights of the Indigenous Peoples and to the conservation of the rain forest in the Colombian Amazon. Thanks to his constant commitment, the Indigenous People, that in the 70´s were still being exploited in rubber camps and had no rights, are now owners of 26 million hectares of Amazon Forest, have set up in half this territory their own governmental system officially recognized by the State as Public Entities and are managing their social and environmental programs with national funding. In addition to many accolades for the breath of his accomplishment, Hildebrand received Colombia's National Environmental Prize in 1999, the Swedish Right Livelihood Award in 1999, the Skoll Foundation's Social Entrepreneur Award in 2009 and the World Economic Forum Social Entrepreneur Award in 2009.
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Has worked over 30 years in sustainable forestry and development including field work in Paraguay Brazil and Haiti. Held senior positions at MacArthur Foundation, appropriate technology International and the World Bank. Launched Forest Trends in 1999 to build market like approaches to bringing value to ecosystem services and benefits to local communities. Speaks Spanish, Portuguese, French, creole and Guarani.
