Oct 2015 BATFN – Monitoring Forests in Near Real Time (Stanford)

Join us on Thursday, October 8 from 6-8 pm for a Bay Area Tropical Forest Network (BATFN) event held at the Carnegie Department of Global Ecology at Stanford University.

Global Forest Watch, a project led by the World Resources Institute, is a dynamic online platform that empowers people around the world with the information they need to better manage and conserve forest landscapes. GFW unites the latest satellite technology, open data, and crowdsourcing in an online forest monitoring and alert system. The platform allows users to obtain information about the status of forests worldwide, analyze forest trends, and create custom maps of forest landscapes.

Please join the World Resource Institute’s Sarah Lake and Karla Renschler as they discuss and demonstrate the GFW platform, as well as the associated Commodities and Fires “apps,” which empower users to analyze the impacts of key commodities on forests, and monitor fires within forested landscapes.

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

Please RSVP here

August 17, 2015

Sep 2015 BATFN – Perimeter defense (San Francisco)

Perimeter Defense: Innovative Technologies for Detecting and Preventing Illegal Logging

This event is hosted by World Resources Institute’s Forest Legality Alliance, a Mongabay partner.

Join us this September to discuss the current capacity needs for detecting and preventing illegal logging and the present and future of “perimeter defense” technologies. This meeting will facilitate dialogue between users and technology providers to scale up effective application of new innovations in the field.

The main event will be held at the California Academy of Sciences on Wednesday, September 16th, followed by an “un-conference” on Friday, September 18th, where participants can continue discussions on topics of their choice.

This event will be held alongside the Conservation Drones Summit, hosted by the California Academy of Sciences, on Thursday, September 17.

Questions? Please see this post for contact details.

August 10, 2015

Aug 2015 BATFN – Forever Sabah (San Francisco)

Forever Sabah

Co-hosted by the California Academy of Sciences

Please join BATFN at the California Academy of Sciences for “Forever Sabah–a transition towards a diversified, equitable circular economy for the state of Sabah in Malaysian Borneo,” a lecture by Cynthia Ong, as part of the Academy’s Explore, Explain and Sustain! seminar lecture series.

Ong is the Executive Director of LEAP–Land Empowerment Animals People–an organization that seeks “new ways which provoke sustainable ecological co-existence.”

Reception to follow. Admission is free and open to all.

Please RSVP

You don’t need to bring physical tickets.

We hope to see you there!

April 29, 2015

May 2015 BATFN – Beyond the Hashtag (Palo Alto)

A Discussion on New Tech Tools for Environmental Activism

Generously hosted by the Patagonia store in Palo Alto

We’re pleased to announce that the May 2015 BATFN will take place from 6pm-8pm at the Patagonia Store in Palo Alto. Dave Grenell, co-founder of Rainforest Connection, and Rhett Butler, founder of Mongabay.org, will speak about creativity, conservation storytelling and their projects that are helping rural communities around the world take action to protect the environment.

Admission is free and open to all, with refreshments courtesy of the Bay Area Tropical Forest Network. All attendees are invited to donate their old cell phones to the cause.

Please RSVP so we know how much beer to buy

You don’t need to bring physical tickets.

We hope to see you there!

Some pictures from the event

March 26, 2015

Apr 2015 BATFN – The Last Place on Earth: Exposing the Threats to the Leuser Ecosystem (San Francisco)

At 6.5 million acres, the Leuser Ecosystem is a world unto itself—a rich and verdant landscape on the island of Sumatra of intact tropical lowland rainforests, cloud draped mountains and steamy peatlands swamps. It is among the most biodiverse and ancient ecosystems ever documented by science, and it is the last place where Sumatran orangutans, elephants, tigers, rhinos and sun bears still roam side by side.
But the Leuser Ecosystem exists at a tenuous crossroads. Despite being protected under Indonesian national law, massive industrial development for palm oil, pulp and paper plantations and mining threaten the entire ecosystem, as well as the continued wellbeing of the millions of Acehnese people who depend on it for their food, water and livelihoods.

Join Rainforest Action Network’s Gemma Tillack and Chelsea Matthews and a special guest from the Leuser Ecosystem, as they discuss the threats to this incredible ecosystem and the solutions needed to ensure its survival.

Where: Rainforest Action Network, 425 Bush St, Suite 300, San Francisco, CA 94108
When: Wed, Apr 1. Doors open at 6:00pm, talk begins at 7:00pm

Please register if you plan to attend.

December 11, 2014

Special forest event in San Francisco

On December 18th, Earth Innovation Institute is hosting a happy hour and discussion on forests and climate change, and California’s critical role in addressing these issues.

The short panel discussion will feature:
– Daniel Nepstad (Earth Innovation)
– Greg Asner (Carnegie Institution for Science)
– Rhett Butler (Mongabay)
– Michael Jenkins (Forest Trends)
– Cynthia Ong (LEAP – Land Empowerment Animals People)

When: Thursday, December 18th, 6-8 pm
Where: A.muse gallery, 614 Alabama Street (18th & Alabama), Mission neighborhood, SF

Free and open to the public. Refreshments will be served.

You must RSVP to attend: bit.ly/BATFN1214

September 16, 2014

Sept BATFN: the impacts of gold mining in the Amazon

Illegal Gold Mining, Mercury Contamination and Deforestation in the Peruvian Amazon

Join us on Thursday, Sept. 25 at 6:00pm at this academic year’s first Bay Area Tropical Forest Network (BATFN) event, held at the Carnegie Department of Global Ecology (260 Panama Street) on Stanford Campus.

Luis Fernandez, Director of the Carnegie Amazon Mercury Ecosystem Project, will discuss the dynamics that have made artisanal gold mining both the primary driver of deforestation in the Western Amazon and the number one source of anthropogenic mercury in the world today, and describe its effects on forests, wildlife and humans.

Speaker: Luis E. Fernandez is a tropical ecologist at the Carnegie Institution’s Department of Global Ecology, and is the director of the Carnegie Amazon Mercury Project (CAMEP), a multi-institution research initiative that examines the impacts of artisanal gold mining, mercury contamination and deforestation on natural and human ecosystems in the Madre De Dios region of the Peruvian Amazon.

Description: Luis will discuss the dynamics that have made artisanal gold mining both the primary driver of deforestation in the Western Amazon and the number one source of anthropogenic mercury in the world today, and describe its effects on forests, wildlife and humans.

Food and drinks will be served starting at 6pm, and Luis will speak around 7pm with discussion to follow.

The event is free and open to all—please feel free to forward to your friends. To RSVP, please visit the BATFN Facebook page or reply to Kelly McManus ([email protected]). We hope to see you there!

July 9, 2014

July 2014 BATFN: Saving the Amazon (San Francisco)

What’s Behind Brazil’s Big Drop in Amazon Deforestation?

The July 2014 BATFN will take place from 6pm-8:30pm Jul 31 at a.Muse gallery (614 Alabama St, San Francisco, CA 94110). The event is hosted by Earth Innovation Institute and is free and open to the public.

We’re pleased to announce that Dan Nesptad, Senior Scientist & Executive Director at the Earth Innovation Institute, will present the results of his team’s recent Science paper, Slowing Amazon deforestation through public policy and interventions in beef and soy supply chains (Mongabay coverage).

Description: Since 2005, deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon has declined 70% below the historic ten-year annual average, keeping 3.2 billion tons of CO₂ out of the atmosphere and avoiding 86,000 km² of forest clearing. As a result Brazil is the global leader in climate change mitigation. The achievement is made more remarkable by the fact that soy and beef production—the main drivers of deforestation—continued to grow.

Daniel Nepstad, senior scientist and founder of Earth Innovation Institute, will present the results of a recent Science article that reviews the mixture of policies, supply chain interventions, and market conditions that led to this tremendous decline in deforestation. The authors conclude that the decline in Amazon deforestation remains fragile as the interventions that contributed to the initial decline are operating in isolation and delivering few positive incentives to the communities and farmers whose land-use decisions drive deforestation. Daniel Nepstad will discuss how these lessons drive Earth Innovation’s strategy to align policy, supply chain initiatives, and finance to secure reductions in deforestation while stimulating investment for low-emission rural development.

If you plan to join us, please RSVP via this form or the Facebook event page.

We hope to see you there!

June 7, 2014

June 2014 BATFN: Deodorant, Diet, Dollars (@Stanford)

Riau rainforest

The June 2014 BATFN will take place from 6pm-8:30pm Jun 19 at the Carnegie Institution complex (260 Panama St, Stanford, CA 94305). The event is open to the public.

We’re pleased to announce that Sharon Smith of the Union of Concerned Scientists will present “Deodorant, Diet, Dollars—Recent Successes in Reducing Deforestation”.

Description: In the 1990s, deforestation was consuming 16 million hectares a year—an area about the size of the state of Georgia—and was responsible for about 17 percent of the global warming pollution that threatens the world with dangerous climate change. But today the pace of deforestation is down; effective programs and policies—driven by individuals, communities, national governments and the private sector—have contributed to positive impacts for forest conservation, socioeconomic development and land-use changes. Sharon Smith, campaign manager of the Tropical Forest and Climate Initiative at UCS, and Peter Frumhoff, director of science and policy at UCS, will discuss the organization’s work—and biggest recent tropical forest victories–centered on commodity markets and international finance for tropical forest conservation.

If you plan to join us, please RSVP via this form or the Facebook event page.

We hope to see you there!

May 1, 2014

May 2014 BATFN: Palm Oil’s Impact on Indonesian Communities

The next BATFN will take place May 1, 2014 at 6pm at the RAN office, 425 Bush Street, Suite 300, San Francisco, CA (nearest BART stop Montgomery). The event is open to the public.

We’re pleased to announce that Ratri Kusumohartono from Sawit Watch will be presenting:

Sawit Watch was founded in 1998 and since then, has built a network of over 130 individual members and local contacts working with dozens of local communities in Sumatra, Kalimantan and Sulawesi, Papua and small islands. Sawit Watch’s beneficiaries are local communities, indigenous people, oil palm smallholders and labors. Sawit Watch’s first mandate is based on the call to support local communities who are fighting or have lost their forest and livelihoods because of large-scale oil palm expansion.

As palm oil industry is growing, negative impacts due to its existence are expanding. Beside communities’ loss of lands and livelihoods, smallholders and laborers are also exploited by large scale plantations. In order to address this, Sawit Watch is currently also working and supporting smallholders and laborers to strengthen their positions./ul>

Doors open at 6pm. The presentation will take place around 7pm.

If you are interested in attending the event, it would be helpful if you RSVP via the Facebook event page. The event is open to everyone so feel free to forward to your friends.