Director, Tropical Forest Policy, Environmental Defense Fund
Steve Schwartzman is Director of Tropical Forest Policy at the Environmental Defense Fund. He leads EDF’s work on tropical forests and economic incentives for large-scale forest protection. For more than 20 years, Steve has worked in the Brazilian Amazon with indigenous and traditional communities, governments, scientists and the private sector to slow deforestation and protect forests. EDF's Brazilian partners have contributed significantly to Brazil's dramatic success in reducing Amazon deforestation and establishing ambitious national emissions reduction targets. An anthropologist, Steve lived with the Panará people in the Brazilian Amazon for a year and a half and learned their language. His areas of expertise include tropical forests, Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and forest Degradation (REDD), Brazil and the Amazon, indigenous peoples and incentives for environmental protection.