Friday, August 8, 2008: 8:00 AM-11:30 AM
104 B, Midwest Airlines Center
SYMP 22 - Tropical Deforestation and Climate Change: Contrasting Views of Science and Policy
Tropical deforestation, the cause of 20% of greenhouse-gas emissions, is recognized as a critical element of climate change. However, reducing emissions from deforestation, although providing important co-benefits such as biodiversity conservation, is a complicated policy problem. This symposium will bring together speakers from both the scientific and policy communities working on this issue to examine how technical advances can make it possible to reach international agreement. At the same time, it highlights debates about some of the most contentious issues, such as the role of markets and the respective roles of industrialized and tropical nations, that stem from fundamental political disagreements. The participants exemplify a wide range of contrasting positions on both the scientific and political sides of the issues.
Organizer:Douglas H. Boucher, Union of Concerned Scientists
Moderator:Douglas H. Boucher, Union of Concerned Scientists
8:00 AMSYMP 22-1Ecosystems and climates in light of four billion years of history
David Schwartzman, Howard University
8:30 AMSYMP 22-2The science and politics of reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation
Tracy Johns, Woods Hole Research Center
9:00 AMSYMP 22-3Perspectives from the global south on forests and climate change
Michael K. Dorsey, Dartmouth College
9:30 AM Break
9:50 AMSYMP 22-4Building scientific and technical capacity to assess and reduce tropical deforestation
Dana Roth, U.S. Forest Service
10:20 AMSYMP 22-5Are payments enough? Observations from Mexico's national experiment with compensation for avoided deforestation
Elizabeth N. Shapiro, University of California, Berkeley
10:50 AM Discussion

See more of Symposium

See more of The 93rd ESA Annual Meeting (August 3 -- August 8, 2008)