BELÉM, Brazil-A workshop hosted by the University of Michigan and the Federal University of Pará in Brazil is preparing early career researchers to tackle some of the Amazon Rainforest's most pressing challenges.
"This collaboration will involve interchange between the two institutions involving education, research, outreach and communication to advance science and public policy for people and nature in the Amazon," said Peter Reich, a professor at the School for Environment and Sustainability, or SEAS. Reich is also the director of the Institute for Global Change Biology.
"The joint workshop of the Amazon Socio-biodiversity Integrated Center, or CISAM, from the Federal University of Pará and the Institute for Global Change Biology at the University of Michigan represents an exciting first step in what we hope will be a vibrant long-running relationship."
The workshop, funded by the Fulbright Chair, brings together more than 50 researchers, professors and students to discuss data analysis, remote sensing, artificial intelligence, ecological modeling and scenario building for the future of the Amazon. The Brazil-US partnership aims to train professionals capable of mapping the future of the forest by integrating environmental and satellite data to support strategic decisions in conservation, restoration and land-use planning.
Science made in and for the Amazon
The Amazon Rainforest is of unique importance to the planet for its biodiversity and role in the global carbon cycle, but it is facing a number of threats, including deforestation, forest degradation and climate shifts. Yet most of the tools and techniques used to assess these transformations are developed far from the impacted territories. Holding this training in the heart of the Amazon brings science closer to the region's real problems and expands the participation of researchers who intimately know its landscapes, institutions and challenges.
"Holding these classes in the middle of the Amazon changes the logic of cooperation," said Leandro Juen, a professor at the Federal University of Pará and coordinator of the Fulbright Chair UFPA/CISAM. "We are not just bringing specialists to talk about the region, but creating conditions for Amazonian researchers to participate in constructing the methods, analyses and decisions about their own territories.
"The Amazon needs to be a center of scientific production and advanced training. When we bring tools, researchers and institutions together, we expand the regional capacity to anticipate risks and propose more appropriate responses to environmental changes."
The workshop also emphasized participation from early-career researchers, including graduate students, postdoctoral researchers and new faculty.
"This group faces specific difficulties in accessing infrastructure, specialized courses, international networks and collaboration opportunities," said Thiago Gonçalves-Souza, an assistant research scientist at SEAS and the U-M Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology. "Early-career researchers need more than access to techniques: they need networks, mentorship, authorship opportunities and space to define scientific questions. By holding this training in the Amazon, we connect advanced methods to the lived experience of those who face these challenges daily."
To extend the workshop's reach, the theoretical portion of the course is also broadcast live on UFPA's YouTube channel, allowing students, researchers and professionals from other institutions and states to follow the activities.
