This article first appeared in the St. Louis Beacon, April 23, 2013 - If you don't know Thomas Lovejoy's name directly, chances are you've come across something he's been involved with over time.
The tropical and conservation biologist created the debt-for-nature swapsused in countries such as Ecuador, the Phillipines and Madagascar. He created the PBS series "Nature."He served as the director of the World Wildlife Fund, worked as the chief biodiversity advisor for the World Bank and in 2001 became senior advisor to the president of the United Nations Foundation. Today, Lovejoy is a professor at George Mason University, and he's known for raising awareness of tropical deforestation and coining the term "biological diversity."
Lovejoy, the 2012 winner of the Blue Planet Prize, is the keynote speaker for “Wild About Conservation!” annual awareness and fundraising forum for the Friends of the Children’s Eternal Rainforest. The event takes place from 6-9 p.m. tonight at the St. Louis Zoo’s Living World. General admission is free and open to the public.
Before coming to St. Louis, Lovejoy took some time to speak with the St. Louis Beacon about his work, climate change and rainforest preservation.
The idea behind the Children's Eternal Rainforest, a project where children in 44 countries raised money to set aside a 55,000 acre reserve in Costa Rica, can be replicated elsewhere, he said.
"These are all incredibly important bits of our biological heritage, but they're really important for the future generations," Lovejoy said. "Not just the generation that set them aside."
Answers have been edited for length and clarity.
Tonight, you’re going to present a talk about 500 years of history in the Amazon and the challenges faced there. What are the challenges in particular that you’ve seen there in your life time?
Lovejoy: When I first set foot in the Amazon, there was only one road and only 3 million people in a wilderness area pretty much as big as the 48 contiguous states. That’s now led to about about 20 percent deforestation, roads in lots of places ... but of course there’s a good side to it, too. The good side is that at the same time that I set foot in the Amazon, there was one demarcated indigenous area, which happened to be in Brazil, and there was one national forest ... and today, more than 50 percent of the Amazon is under some sort of protection, whether it’s national parks or national forests or state-protected areas for sustainable use... so it’s a very positive story. It just isn’t enough.
Tell us about the idea behind the Children’s Eternal Rainforest and the impact it has had since it began?
Lovejoy: I first set foot in that area (of Costa Rica) probably around 1973 or ‘74. That was before the actual creation of the Children’s Eternal Rainforest. It’s been wonderful to watch it over time go from something that was relatively modest in its impact on the world to something that’s really symbolic of the importance of these forests to future generations, and to become well-known around the world, when there are so many other rainforests that might be the ones that people know about.
Through your career, you’ve reached out to people in a number of ways, through television, teaching and the United Nations, among others. Did you find any one in particular to be more effective at creating real change?
Lovejoy: That’s a really good question, it certainly does create a lot of change by just doing it one way. It’s really important to look at each case individually to see what aspects would be most appealing, but in the end, I find that nature sells itself, and if you can actually take people out into nature, and let them see and hear and experience it first hand, that’s our best ally in conservation.
Despite scientific evidence, there’s still debate in this country about the reality of climate change. What needs to happen to change that?
Lovejoy: If you actually look at public opinion, it's not so bad. The biggest problem is all the activity that goes on to try and confuse people, and however well- or ill-intended it might be, it’s not the truth. So as long as that noise continues to go on in the background, it will slow us down.
You’ve made a big impact in your long career, founding "Nature," creating the debt-for-nature swaps, as well as a number of prominent positions and awards. What’s next for you?
Lovejoy: I’ve got three books I need to write (laughs). But I think my single biggest project is to try to get government etc., the public at large, to realize we actually need to manage the planet, not just as a physical system, but as a coupled physical and biological system, and that if we actually did some net-scale, proactive ecosystem restoration, we could literally take out a half a degree of the climate change that otherwise would happen. It doesn’t sound like a big number, but two degrees is actually too much for most ecosystems, so if you could keep it to one and a half degrees, it would make all the difference.