The aim of this event is to discuss how the changing political momentum in Colombia and Brazil is affecting the fate of the Amazon and the challenges that remain to protect the remaining rainforest areas.
The invited speakers will reflect on the meaning of political change in Brazil and Colombia for the environment and for local and indigenous peoples. In addition, we will hear about local initiatives that build opportunities for the diversification and improvement of livelihoods in Ecuador. The speakers will further discuss how Amazonian countries are addressing the destructive political legacies of the past and present. We invite all participants to discuss more sustainable futures for the Amazon and to what extent we all can support initiatives that transform destructive economic activities to become more environmentally friendly and socially just.
The event is held in English via zoom.
Register HERE
Agenda:
14:00-14:05
Moderator Torsten Krause, Senior Lecturer Lund University Centre for Sustainability Studies, LUCSUS. Welcome, brief introduction, and presentation of the event and invited panelists.
Three panelists will present for 10 minutes followed by a 5 min Q&A
14:05 -14:20
- Mairon Bastos Lima, Research Fellow SEI and Trase: Forest Politics of Brazil.
14:20- 14:35
- Jesica López, PhD student CEC, Lund University: Bioeconomy strategies in the Colombian Amazon.
14:35-14:50
- Wain Collen, CEO Aliados: Building sustainable futures with local communities in Ecuador.
14:50- 15:25
Discussion with panelists and participants
15:25-15:30
Concluding remarks and thanks
Speakers bios:
Mairon Bastos Lima is a Research Fellow at SEI Headquarters assessing leverage points and institutional innovations for sustainability transitions in land use, particularly around tropical ecosystems. He focuses on the policy, governance and political dimensions of agri-food systems and commodity supply chains. In addition, he is the research coordinator for the Trase initiative.
Prior to SEI, Mairon worked as a consultant and postdoctoral researcher at Wageningen University and the Chalmers University of Technology. His research has addressed a range of agriculture and land use issues in developing countries as well as at the international level, including leakage in environmental governance, SDGs’ synergies and politics, the expansion of oil palm in Indonesia and soy in Brazil, climate-smart agriculture in Eastern and Southern Africa, and landscape approaches to reconcile forest conservation with rural development in Latin America.
Jesica Lópezis a Ph.D. candidate in Environmental Sciences and Sustainable Land Use at the Centre for Environmental and Climate Research (CEC) at Lund University. She is part of the Agenda 2030 graduate school at Lund University, working with the SGDs in the nexus between the competition of land for food production (i.e., livestock) and the pressure on biodiversity in protected areas with tropical rain forests.
Jesica has experience in the private and public sectors in Denmark as an ecosystem services specialist, project coordinator, and research assistant at the Department of Food and Resource Economics of the University of Copenhagen. Her research project aims to improve our systems’ approach to understanding the mechanisms behind the land use transformation in the Colombian Amazon.
Wain Collen is an entrepreneur and sustainability expert, Co-founder & Executive Director at Aliados. He has worked for over a decade in the non-profit and social business space in Ecuador with a focus on sustainable development in tropical forests. He is a sustainability expert, and social and environmental entrepreneur who uses his skills and experiences to support forest dwelling communities as they engage with change and markets by building platforms for innovation, cooperation, and sustainability.
In 2013, Wain founded PlanJunto, a social business with the mission to build sustainable community enterprise in tropical forests. Wain has an MSc in Environmental Management and Policy from Lund University in Sweden.