Halting the destruction of the Amazon; the ultimate innovation challenge
Dr Robin Daniels
Serial founder, innovator and impact investor | Fellow, Wolfson College Cambridge
For the first time, the world’s largest tropical rainforest is to be made available to businesses, universities and entrepreneurs as a global science and innovation centre. It is hoped that this will help us to understand, protect and preserve this vital asset for future generations.
One of their most pressing aims will be to find better ways of making money from the rainforest than chopping down its trees.
Redpill Group is delighted to be appointed as Global Innovation Partner of the Amazonian Alliance and we have founded and are chairing the Amazonian Alliance Science & Innovation Working Group. Initial members include senior academics from Imperial College London, University of Sussex and scientists from the UK’s Satellite Applications Catapult.
These and future members will combine to tackle one of the most pressing challenges of our time; the destruction of the Amazon rainforest.
Through a Strategic Alliance Agreement signed today, the Brazilian Rainforest Conservation Company (EBCF), under the umbrella of the ‘Amazonian Alliance’, and Redpill Group Ltd, are inviting others from around the world to join them in creating a science and innovation centre, set within an initial reserve of 50,000 acres of protected rainforest. This private sustainable development reserve is the first of its kind in the history of Brazil and the Amazon, with social projects related to health, education, infrastructure and income generation directly benefiting over 3,000 people living in 15 local communities.
Joining EBCF and Redpill Group as initial members of the Amazonian Alliance Science & Innovation Working Group are academics from Imperial College London, University of Sussex, the Satellite Applications Catapult, satellite imagery experts Sterling-Geo and, as lead partners for Brazil, Hdom Consultoria Ambiental.
Members of the Working Group will help to develop an applied research strategy and programme of work to identify and unlock new research and commercial value exceeding that achievable from logging and forest destruction. A new financial paradigm and economic model for the Amazon will be developed to underpin the objectives of the Paris climate accord; not only providing sustainable and robust economic models for developing countries such as Brazil and transferring to other ecologically sensitive environments around the world, but also delivering new science, technology, innovation, policies, business and governance models that will contribute to mitigating and combating climate change.
The health of the Amazon is key to the behaviour of the world’s climate because this unique environment accounts for 20% of global oxygen production and holds up to 40% of the world’s fresh water in its rivers.
The Amazon also holds the key to many known and future challenges, such as those in biodiversity, carbon capture and pharmacology.
Launching with a series of 200 acre plots and support facilities, the Science & Innovation Research Centre will be used for field research across a huge span of zoological, botanical, environmental and sustainable development interests. In addition, the Centre will open up the Amazon as the ultimate ‘living lab’; a test-bed for a range of adjacent science and technology, including but not limited to pharmaceuticals, nutraceuticals, food science, energy, Big Data, sensor and drone technologies, satellite & Remote Sensing Imagery, 3D modelling & data visualisation, image recognition and many more. Large companies already engaged as Partners via the “We are Amazonians” branded Global Sustainability Program, such as Sony Music Brazil and Hyundai, will be joined by entrepreneurs, start-ups, growing businesses and investors from Brazil and around the world.
Professor Peter Childs, Head of the Dyson School of Design Engineering, said “We, at Imperial College London, are privileged and excited to be part of this endeavour to preserve the Amazon rain forest through scientific breakthroughs and the innovative adaptation of existing technologies. Combining our technical capabilities with a range of socio-economic and business expertise from across the College, we look forward to working with partners from around the world to address this most pressing of challenges.”
Professor Steve McGuire, Head of the School of Business, Management and Economics at the University of Sussex, said: “As a research institution we are concerned with achieving progress at a wide scale and so have particular interest in how this work might become scalable at a wider scale in Amazonia, in Brazil and in other similar contexts around the world. Establishing the evidence base for practical delivery of social and economic progress within environmental limits is a highly relevant area of research for us.”
Dr Sam Adlen, Head of Business Innovation, Satellite Applications Catapult, said: “We are delighted to be working with the Amazonian Alliance and leading Brazilian and UK partners to be able to develop new ways to protect, preserve and sustainably manage the tropical rainforest. The rainforest is one of our most vital assets as the pressures from climate change and other human influences grow. Through observation, positioning and remote communications, satellites can play a vital role in understanding, protecting and optimising the use of the rainforest. With growing commitments to zero deforestation, we look forward to working with the best in science and innovation to develop new approaches to maintaining and developing the rainforest for generations to come.”
We invite academics, business leaders and investors interested in learning more, and possibly joining this world-first, to get in touch. There can be few challenges more important, or more inspiring.