Alumnus Carlos de Souza Jr. received his PhD in 2005 (“Mapping and Spatiotemporal Characterization of Degraded Forests in the Brazilian Amazon through Remote Sensing”— Dar Roberts, Chair), and is now the Executive Secretary and a Senior Researcher at the Amazon Institute of People and the Environment (Imazon) in his native Brazil. Imazon is a private institute dedicated to promoting sustainable development in the Amazon.
Dr. de Sousa focuses on GIS analysis to identify priority areas for conservation in the Amazon, and applications of Remote Sensing to map land cover and land use changes. He recently coauthored a book titled “Human Pressure on the Brazilian Amazon Forests” which points out that half of the Brazilian Amazon rainforest is under pressure from an array of human activities which have increased as much as eight percent since 2002 (Barreto, P.;Souza Jr. C.; Noguerón, R.; Anderson, A. & Salomão, R. 2006. Human Pressure on the Brazilian Amazon Forests. WRI: Washington DC; Imazon: Belém). Much of the data and maps from the book were incorporated into the January 2007 issue of the National Geographic Magazine in “Last of the Amazon,” an article on the Amazon Rain Forest which highlights “Brazil’s dilemma: Allow widespread—and profitable—destruction of the rain forest to continue, or intensify conservation efforts.”
Carlos has been instrumental in the development of remote sensing techniques used to detect and monitor Amazon forest degradation caused by selective logging and forest fires, and he recently co-authored a study that supported the creation of a huge mosaic of protected areas in the Brazilian Amazon (see http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/6205802.stm for the BBC News coverage: “Rainforest gets protected status”). To quote Carlos, “My academic training at UCSB was very important for the development of these projects in Brazil. I learned advanced remote sensing and geostatistical techniques, and had solid scientific training while at the Geography Department.”
