Debate on Amazon Road Development at Yale

A debate on road development in the Amazon will take place on Saturday, February 17, 9 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. in Luce Hall Auditorium, 34 Hillhouse Avenue.

The forum will examine whether development facilitates deforestation and illegal logging or whether it stimulates conservation efforts; whether it instigates social conflict by displacing indigenous groups or provides market access to economic goods for rural communities; and whether it promotes jobs and local economic development or only favors the trade interests of large-scale timber and soy producers.

“The forum will allow for a discussion of the costs and benefits of these road development projects and their associated social, economic, ecological, cultural and political implications,” said Jen Lewis, a candidate for master’s degrees in environmental management and international relations.

The panelists are Ane Alencar, research coordinator of the project, Regional Planning Along the BR163 Highway in Central Amazonia, and Ph.D. student at the University of Florida; Pedro Bara, Amazon policy director for the World Wildlife Fund; Lisa Curran, professor of tropical resources at the Yale School of Forestry & Environmental Studies; Adriana Moreira, a senior biodiversity specialist for the World Bank; Francisco Ruiz, executive director of the Amazon Cooperation Treaty Organization; Francisco Wulff, principal executive, vice-presidency of infrastructure for Corporacion Andina de Fomento; Mary Allegretti, a former Brazilian government official; and Robert Walker, a professor of geography at Michigan State University.

The forum was organized by the Environment and Development Student Interest Group at the Yale School of Forestry & Environmental Studies, and is sponsored by the Gaddis Smith Seminar Series; Council on Latin American & Iberian Studies at the Whitney and Betty MacMillan Center for International and Area Studies at Yale; Student Affairs Committee and Class of 1980 Fund of the Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies; Schell Center for International Human Rights of the Yale Law School; Office of International Students and Scholars; and the Yale Graduate & Professional Student Senate.

For more information, contact either James Leslie (james.leslie@yale.edu) or Jen Lewis (jennifer.a.lewis@yale.edu).