Paulo Moutinho
Current Executive Director for the Amazon Environmental Research Institute (IPAM), Dr. Paulo Moutinho has worked with the Amazon region over the past twenty years. His studies are related to deforestation patterns and their effects on biodiversity, climate and local communities. He carried out pioneering research on the processes of forest recovery on degraded areas and on the impacts of rainfall reduction on ecological function of Amazon forests. He is one of the authors of the proposal for compensating reduced deforestation, which supports international financial incentives for developing countries making efforts to reduce deforestation rates. Such proposal provided the basis for the REDD mechanism (Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation) under discussion in the UNFCCC. He has also worked actively for the adoption of a National Policy on Climate Change, which sets up unprecedented targets for greenhouse gas emission reduction for Brazil.