Intertwined roots: Mapping spatial relationships between forests and people

Seminar Abstract:

The relationships between forests and people is of substantial interest to peoples and agencies that govern and use them, private sector actors that seek to manage and profit from them, NGOs who support and implement conservation and development projects, and researchers who study these relationships. In this talk, I will briefly discuss three closely related studies. First, we conceptualize ‘forest-dependency’ to better understand the myriad ways in which people use and rely on forest products and services. Second, we map the spatial distribution of people living in and around forests, globally. Third, we evaluate incongruence between different global forest datasets and reflect on implications for forest conservation and development policy.

Speaker Bio:

Dr. Peter Newton is an Associate Professor in the Department of Environmental Studies at the University of Colorado Boulder in the United States, where he has worked for 12 years. He holds a PhD in Environmental Science from the University of East Anglia.

Dr. Newton is an interdisciplinary environmental scientist who studies socio-environmental systems. His research focuses on two main areas: 1) conservation and sustainable development in tropical forested regions and 2) sustainable agriculture and food systems. Much of his research is interdisciplinary, systems oriented, and policy-relevant. He works principally in Brazil and the US, but his research has also taken him to Indonesia, Mozambique, Uganda, and Vietnam.