CREA - Saving Tropical Ecosystems

Google Tech Talks May, 15 2008 ABSTRACT Michael will talk about the work that his organization CREA is carrying out in Panama to conserve endangered tropical forests. Specifically the talk will deal with the link between human poverty and environmental degradation and how social justice is key to the solution. In his presentation Michael will discuss how CREA is taking a leading role environmental conservation through the implementation of innovative programs and initiatives that the organization undertakes. Speaker: Michael Roy (PhD) Michael is an accomplished conservation geneticist having obtained his PhD from London University and thereon working in academic institutions in UK, Denmark and the US before being made a tenured senior lecturer of zoology at Otago University, New Zealand. He has undertaken biological research on a wide variety of terrestrial and marine organisms and has generated over 40 international research papers. While working on sabbatical in Panama as a conservation biologist with the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute in 2002 he came to the stark realization that the knowledge gained by his research and that of others was not being conveyed to the people that most needed it. At that point he made the bold decision to leave his successful career as an academic and dedicate himself to creating a grass-roots organization that could really making a change. That organization became known as Conservation through Research Education and Action: CREA. In 2005 CREA became a 501 c 3 organization whose mission is to conserve tropical rainforests through the building of sustainable livelihoods for rural communities based on the principles of science, education and social justice. Since then Michael has been working full time with CREA.