Tasso Azevedo founded the Brazilian non-governmental organization Imaflora in 1995 to create alternatives to deforestation. It became the leading environmental certification institution in Brazil. In 2003 he was appointed as the first director general of Brazil's National Forest Service.
In that job, by showing how the health of the Amazon rainforest is directly connected to his country’s economic stability and energy security, he led the implementation of an innovative framework of incentives for sustainable forestry that contributed to reduce the ate of deforestation in the Amazon by 75 percent -- and Brazil's greenhouse gas emissions by one-third. Today, Azevedo is focused on addressing climate change globally.
“Tasso is ... somebody who is thinking very practically and looking at multiple ways he can change people's behavior, and he has been very effective at doing this at both the governmental and NGO level.” — Barton Thompson Jr., Stanford Report, 2013
The TED community has been very busy over the past few weeks. Below, some newsy highlights. Crime forecasting in Rio. Before the 2016 Olympic Games, worries ran high that crime in Rio might affect the mega-event; one reported attack at the Games (which actually might not have happened) grabbed headlines around the world during the […]
Continue readingThe theme of this session is “Blueprints.” And so we hear from speakers who have that all-too-easy-to-overlook first step: a plan. Brazil is named for a tree, says Tasso Azevedo. And thus, it is a good place to be a forester. 12% of the world’s forests are in the country, primarily in the Amazon, which plays a vital role in […]
Continue readingSo you want to make a difference in the world -- well, first you need a plan. In Session 7 of TEDGlobal we turn from technology to social good, with four speakers armed with roadmaps to solving some of society's thorniest problems.
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