Scientific, Social And Economic

Dimensions of Development

in the Amazon

Participants in the symposium will discuss the scientific, social, and economic factors of development in the Amazon, considering the results of research projects funded by the São Paulo Research Foundation (FAPESP) on the Amazon biome. The event will explore aspects of the climate, ecosystem functioning, and biodiversity, as well as related socioeconomic issues associated with the current project of Amazonian development. Private sector and non-governmental organizations initiatives which have played an important role in building understanding of the processes affecting the development of the Amazon will also be discussed.

Confirmed speakers

• Thomas Lovejoy, George Mason University (by video)
• Paulo Artaxo, University of São Paulo (USP), Brazil
• Douglas Morton, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, USA
• Celso von Randow, National Institute for Space Research (INPE), Brazil
• José Marengo, National Centre for Monitoring and Early Warning of Natural Disasters (CEMADEM), Brazil
• Gustavo Fonseca, The World Bank, USA
• Rita Mesquita, National Institute of Amazon Researches (INPA), Brazil
• Fábio Abdala, Alcoa Foundation, Brazil

Topics covered

• The close links between the biology of Amazonia and the climate
• Remote sensing of Amazon deforestation
• The ecosystem and physiological control of the carbon balance in Amazonia
• The current and future climate in Amazonia and its impact
• Economic incentives for halting deforestation in the Amazon
• The role of research institutions in fostering development in the Amazon
• The role of the private sector in sustainable development in the Amazon

• 08:30 a.m.

  

  Registration and Coffee

• 09:00 a.m.

  
  

  Welcome Session

  Paulo Sotero - Director of the Brazil Institute, Wilson Center

  Paulo Artaxo, São Paulo Research Foundation (FAPESP)
  Rita Mesquita, National Institute of Amazon Researches (INPA)

  Paulo Sotero is the director of the Brazil Institute of the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars. An award winning journalist, from 1989 to 2006 he was the Washington correspondent for Estado de S.Paulo, a leading Brazilian daily newspaper. Sotero began his career at Veja in the late 1960s and worked for the magazine in São Paulo, Recife, Brasília, and Paris, until he was named its correspondent in Portugal after the democratic revolution of April 25, 1974. Sotero has been in Washington, D.C., since 1980, where he has been a correspondent for Istoé weekly magazine and the financial newspaper Gazeta Mercantil. He is a frequent guest commentator for the BBC, CNN, Al Jazeera, Voice of America, National Public Radio, Globo News Television and the Brazilian Radio Network - CBN. He also contributes regularly to Brazilian and international newspapers, magazines, and scholarly journals. A native of the state of São Paulo, Sotero holds a Bachelor’s degree in History from the Catholic University of Pernambuco, and a Master’s degree in Journalism and Public Affairs from American University, in Washington, D.C. He has been an adjunct lecturer at the Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service, Georgetown University, and is currently on the adjunct faculty of the Elliott School of International Affairs, George Washington University.

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  Welcome video with Tom Lovejoy

  George Mason University, USA

• 09:15 a.m.

  

  Paulo Artaxo

  University of São Paulo (USP), Brazil

  The close links between the biology of Amazonia and the climate

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  Short Bio

  Paulo Eduardo Artaxo Netto earned his PhD in 1985 in atmospheric physics from the University of São Paulo. He has held positions at the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) (United States), the University of Antwerp (Belgium), Lund University (Sweden), and Harvard University (United States). Dr. Artaxo is a full professor at the Applied Physics Department of the USP Institute of Physics. He works in the field of physics applied to environmental issues, focusing on global climate change, the Amazon environment, the physics of atmospheric aerosols, and urban air pollution.

  Dr. Artaxo is a full member of the Brazilian Academy of Sciences, The World Academy of Sciences (TWAS), and the Academy of Sciences from the São Paulo State. He is the coordinator of the Large-Scale Biosphere-Atmosphere Experiment in Amazonia, and a member of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), UNEP GEO-6, and other international science institutions.

  In 2004, Dr. Artaxo Netto was recognized by the Brazilian Senate for his scientific research in the Amazon environment. In 2006, he was elected as a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Sciences. In 2007, he won the Earth Sciences prize from the World Academy of Sciences. He is one of the most cited Brazilian scientists, and has more than 450 international publications.

• 10:00 a.m.

  

  Douglas Morton

  NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, USA

  Remote sensing of Amazon deforestation

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  Download flythrough video (84 MB)

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  Short Bio

  Dr. Douglas Morton is an Earth scientist at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center and an Adjunct Professor at the University of Maryland. He leads an interdisciplinary lab at NASA to conduct large-scale ecological research using data from NASA’s satellites and airborne platforms, ecosystem models, and fieldwork. Dr. Morton’s work focuses on tropical forests, fires, and food production. He has worked in Brazil for the past 15 years, with an emphasis on agricultural frontiers in the Amazon and Cerrado biomes and dynamics of deforestation, forest degradation, and agricultural management following forest conversion. Dr. Morton contributes to the Global Fire Emissions Database (GFED, www.globalfiredata.org), a collaborative effort to characterize the impact of global burned area and carbon emissions from fire activity on the Earth system. Dr. Morton is also actively engaged in international efforts to Reduce Emissions from Deforestation and forest Degradation (REDD+), and serves as a technical advisor to SilvaCarbon, a US-Government initiative to build capacity in tropical forest countries to monitor and manage their forest resources.

• 10:45 a.m.

  

  Coffee break

• 11:00 a.m.

  

  Celso von Randow

  National Institute for Space Research (INPE), Brazil

  The ecosystem and physiological control of the carbon balance in Amazonia

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  Short Bio

  Celso von Randow is a researcher at the Earth System Science Center, at the Brazilian National Institute for Space Research. Since 1999, he has been developing studies on Biosphere-Atmosphere Interactions in tropical biomes, focusing on the measurement of surface fluxes of carbon and water vapor using the micrometeorological technique of eddy covariance. He obtained his PhD in Environmental Sciences at Wageningen University and Research Centre, in the Netherlands, in 2007, with the thesis entitled “On turbulent exchange processes over Amazonian forest”. Currently, he leads a research group on land surface modeling, vegetation dynamics and impacts of land use change in Brazilian biomes.

• 11:45 p.m.

  

  José A. Marengo

  National Centre for Monitoring and Early Warning of Natural Disasters (CEMADEM), Brazil

  The current and future climate in Amazonia and its impact

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  Short Bio

  Jose A. Marengo holds a degree in Physics and Meteorology and a Master's degree in Land and Water Resource Engineering from the National Agrarian University in Lima, Peru, as well as a PhD in Meteorology from the University of Wisconsin - Madison (1991) in the USA. He developed post-doctoral research at NASA-GISS and Columbia University in New York and at the Florida State University, in Florida (USA) in climate modelling. He was the senior researcher of the National Institute for Space Research (INPE) between 1995 and 2014, and currently he is senior researcher and General Coordinator of Research and Development at CEMADEN (National Centre for Monitoring and Early Warning of Disasters), of the Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation (MCTI), where he works with extreme events and natural disaster risk reduction.

  He is member of several United Nations international panels and work groups on global changes in Brazil and abroad. He is a senior member of the Scientific Committee of the Brazilian Panel on Climate Change and he was Coordinating Lead Author (CLA), Lead Author (LA) and Review Editor (RE) for the reports produced by the IPCC WG1 and WG2, AR4 and AR5 and the IPCC SR1.5. He is also a member of the Brazilian Academy of Sciences and the São Paulo State Academy of Sciences. He is author of more than 300 publications from papers to books and book chapters and reports. He is member of the Brazilian Academy of Sciences, from the Academy of Sciences of the State of Sao Paulo, Researcher level 1-A of CNPq, the Brazilian Panel of Climate Change (PBMC), and the Brazilian Network on Climate research.

• 12:30 a.m.

  

  Lunch

• 01:30 p.m.

  

  Gustavo Fonseca

  The World Bank, USA

  Economic incentives for halting deforestation in the Amazon

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  Short Bio

  Dr. Fonseca is the Director of Programs at the Global Environment Facility. Responsibilities include overseeing the portfolio of investments in biodiversity, climate change mitigation and adaptation, forests and REDD+, transboundary marine and freshwater conservation, chemicals and sustainable land management. A tenured Professor at the Federal University of Minas Gerais (UFMG) in Brazil, he was the first Executive Director of Center for Applied Biodiversity before becoming the Chief Conservation and Science Officer of Conservation International. He holds a Master's degree in Latin American Studies and a Ph.D. in Forest Management and Conservation from the University of Florida. He published close to 170 publications articles and books. He received the Oliver Austin Award of the University of Florida’s State Museum for outstanding research in the natural sciences, the Environmental Protection Award of Government of the state of Minas Gerais, Brazil, the Distinguished Service Recognition award from the Brazil Biodiversity Fund (Funbio), and the Golden Ark Award, an official order of the Dutch government, the highest environment award of the Netherlands.

• 02:15 p.m.

  

  Rita Mesquita

  National Institute of Amazon Researches (INPA), Brazil

  The role of research institutions in fostering development in the Amazon

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  Short Bio

  Rita Mesquita has lived in Manaus, Amazonas, Brazil for the past 34 years and is a senior researcher with INPA, the Brazilian National Institute for Research in the Amazon since 2000. She holds a Ph.D. in Ecology from the University of Georgia, USA. Her research is on natural regeneration of degraded areas of the Amazon, working mainly on secondary vegetation dynamics. She worked for the State of Amazonas Government between 2004 and 2008, and took part on some of the most relevant public policies for nature conservation, including the creation and implementation of protected areas, the ecological economic zoning, and the formulation of legislation on environmental management and climate change mitigation. At present, she is dedicated to scientific popularization and coordinates INPA´s Extension and Outreach Programs.

• 03:00 p.m.

  

  Fábio Abdala

  Alcoa Foundation

  The role of the private sector in sustainable development in the Amazon

• 03:45 p.m.

  

  Panel discussion

• 04:30 p.m.

  

  Closing remarks - Paulo Sotero and Paulo Artaxo