The destruction of the world's forests has had massive environmental impacts, contributing to unprecedented losses in biodiversity around the world. The recent, catastrophic fires in the Amazon rainforest, the so-called lungs of our planet, were started by developers seeking to profit from the cultivation of crops, mining, logging, and grazing on the land and drive away the indigenous peoples who seek to preserve the forest and their way of life. Indonesia's rainforests, once one of the most biologically diverse forests in the world, have been almost completely destroyed, and forests throughout the world are under siege from the encroachments of man.
This Matrix on Point panel will address the fate of our forests, considering not only the ecological but also the social and geopolitical implications of these issues.
Join us for a conversation with Nancy Peluso, Henry J. Vaux Distinguished Professor of Forest Policy, Department of Environmental Science, Policy, and Management, UC Berkeley; Christopher Lesser, Graduate Student, Geography, UC Berkeley; and Stephanie Postar, Ciriacy-Wantrup Postdoctoral Fellow in Natural Resource Economics and Political Economy, UC Berkeley.