Join us on June 6 from 6-8:30 pm for a Bay Area Tropical Forest Network (BATFN) event held at the Goldman School of Public Policy at U.C. Berkeley.

The event will focus on Brazil’s cerrado, a tropical woodland ecosystem that is fast being destroyed for industrial ranches and farms. Dr. Arnaldo Carneiro, a researcher at National Institute for Amazonian Research (INPA), will present his findings on how companies can expand responsibly, while the Union of Concerned Scientists will provide an overview of the current political battle going over the future of the Brazilian Cerrado, which is home to 5 percent of the world’s remaining biodiversity.

Over the past decade, vast areas of Brazil’s Cerrado have been converted from diverse native ecosystems into soy monocultures to feed the world’s growing demand. Today, deforestation rates are still higher in the Cerrado, particularly in Matopiba, where most recent agricultural expansion has occurred at the expense of native vegetation. It doesn’t have to be this way. Researchers and experts have mapped opportunities for agricultural expansion on degraded lands and existing pasture. Advocacy groups press for soy traders to adopt a monitoring system for deforestation and smart infrastructure design to focus new expansion on existing pasture fields avoiding new deforestation.

Admission is free and open to all, with refreshments (including wine and beer) courtesy of the Bay Area Tropical Forest Network and UCS.

WHEN:
June 6 from 6-8:30 pm

WHERE:
Goldman School of Public Policy: Living room
University of California
2607 Hearst Ave.
Berkeley, CA 94720-7320