From R. Max Holmes, President & CEO
Seeing the forest for the trees George Woodwell recognized decades ago that there is no solution to climate change without protecting tropical forests. That is why Woodwell Climate scientists have focused on forest ecology since we were founded in 1985, and why to this day we maintain active research and policy programs in Earth’s great tropical forests, including the Amazon and the Congo. For a livable climate, it is absolutely essential that the vast quantity of carbon contained in tropical forests—built up over centuries through the process of photosynthesis pulling carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere—stays in forests and out of the atmosphere. While progress has been made, the reality is that tropical deforestation continues, threatening climate as well as biodiversity, water cycling, and the rights and livelihoods of local and indigenous people. I have long wished that people would recognize and appreciate the intrinsic value of tropical forests—their beauty, their majesty, their biodiversity—and that would motivate them to protect these incredible landscapes. Talk of “valuation of ecosystem services” and the like, essentially trying to put a dollar value on the priceless, felt degrading to me. Begrudgingly, my view has changed. I’ve come to accept that as long as more money can be made cutting trees down than keeping them standing, the future of tropical forests—and hence global climate—is bleak. I’ve also come to better appreciate the challenges of some of the people deciding the fate of tracks of tropical forests, be they poor farmers in the Amazon struggling to feed their families, or government officials in the Democratic Republic of the Congo trying to balance forest conservation with the need for economic development. If we all benefit from tropical forests, who then pays the bills? In other words, where could the money come from to overcome the short-term economic incentive to cut down tropical forests? Philanthropy can and does help, but the scale of the need greatly exceeds the capacity of global philanthropy. International monetary
Fall 2023
Climate Science for Change
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