Amazonian Leapfrogging 3.0 Promotes Bold Environmental Solutions

A cross-disciplinary collective seeks nature-based solutions for protecting the world’s most important biome

The Amazon, often dubbed “the lungs of our planet,” for its singular capacity to absorb carbon and release oxygen into our atmosphere, has been imperiled on multiple fronts over the last few decades. The Amazon harbors half the world's tropical forests and Earth's largest river basin. Essential to global climate and water resources, it contains the planet's largest carbon stores and one of its richest concentrations of biodiversity. The biome is also home to more than 410 distinct Indigenous ethnic groups who hold territorial rights to over 20% of the region. These diverse peoples have developed profound ecological knowledge and shaped rainforest dynamics and adaptation for more than 12,000 years.

Leapfrogging seeks to identify shortcuts in the process of remediating environmental degradation.

 

João Biehl, Susan Dod Brown Professor and Chair of Anthropology and Director of the Brazil LAB at the Princeton Institute for International and Regional Studies (PIIRS) kicked off the Amazonian Leapfrogging 3.0 conference, which took place May 8-9 with a stark message: “Consecutive years of extreme drought and escalating fires have exacerbated the existing crisis, underscoring the region's vulnerability to climate change, biocultural diversity loss and organized crime,” he said. “While recent efforts to curb deforestation have shown promise, the Amazon now faces multiple potential tipping points that demand groundbreaking cross-sector collaborations aimed at transformational change.” The conference — which hosted more than 100 leaders in science, policy, finance, business, civil society and media, alongside social entrepreneurs, students and concerned citizens from Brazil and Princeton — endeavored to do just that.

Day one of the Amazonian Leapfrogging 3.0 conference; at right, Prof. João Biehl
Susan Dod Brown Professor of Anthropology points to Prof. Debora Yashar the Donald E. Stokes Professor of Public and International Affairs and Professor of Politics and International Affairs, and director of the Princeton Institute for International and Regional Studies (PIIRS).

 

“The Amazonian Leapfrogging 3.0 Conference is a testament to the Brazil LAB vision and to the possibilities represented by the people in the room,” PIIRS Director Deborah Yashar, Donald E. Stokes Professor of Politics and Public and International Affairs, noted. “It’s not just about understanding the past or responding to the present — it’s about shaping the future.”

Prof. Deborah Yashar addresses the conference participants.

 

This year was the third in a series of conferences, convened every three years by the Brazil LAB, to examine the multiple threats to the Amazonian ecosystem and the Indigenous communities therein, as well as “to exponentialize breakthrough ideas and solutions,” as the Brazilian environmentalist Tasso Azevedo, founder and director of MapBiomas and currently a Princeton affiliated researcher noted. In his remarks, environmentalist Beto Veríssimo, a co-organizer of the conference and co-founder of the Imazon Institute, emphasized the need for a new vision for the Amazon “that breaks with the paradigm that prevailed in the past.” This vision was being orchestrated at the conference, he said, “I think we have a real chance to leapfrog.” 

Tasso Azevedo, coordinator of the SEEG Network and MapBiomas, presents at the conference.

 

A collective effort, Amazonian Leapfrogging 3.0 was co-organized with the Brazilian Amazônia 2030 Initiative (co-led by Veríssimo) and the High Meadows Environmental Institute (HMEI) and sponsored by the Princeton School of Public and International Affairs, the University Center for Human Values, the Program in Latin American Studies, the Humanities Council, and the Department of Anthropology. Hydro Norsk supported the event. The conference produced novel insights to inform public discussions leading to the United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP30) to be held in November 2025 in the Amazonian state of Pará.

Gabriel Vecchi, the Knox Taylor Professor of Geosciences and director of HMEI, thanked the distinguished participants for “giving Princeton the opportunity to learn from you, to interact with you, and to really model a way of engaging across society in order to tackle challenging, seemingly insurmountable problems and to create and implement a path forward.”

Gabriel Vecchi, the Knox Taylor Professor of Geosciences and director of HMEI.

Leapfrogging conference participants at Firestone.

 

Guests of Amazonian Leapfrogging 3.0 participated in a pre-conference programming, including an exclusive tour of Firestone Library’s Department of Rare Books and Special Collections, led by Fernando Acosta Rodríguez, where attendees explored rare manuscripts, ephemera, maps and early printed works related to the Amazon. The archival encounter offered a unique window into centuries of global knowledge-making about the forest and its peoples housed at Princeton. 

Guests also toured the Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory (PPPL), in a visit organized by physicist Vinícius Duarte, where they engaged with cutting-edge research in plasma science and nuclear fusion — highlighting how innovation in sustainable energy can inform future strategies for sustainable development. On the evening before the conference, participants gathered for a screening of Mundurukuyü: A Forest of Fish-Women — a film directed by a collective of Brazilian Indigenous women — followed by a Q&A with filmmaker and producer Estêvão Ciavatta.

Leapfrogging conference participants at PPPL.

A ‘Normalized Catastrophe’ and a New Science for These Times 

Amazonian Leapfrogging 3.0 began with a panel of pioneering scholars — including Marina Hirota, a climate scientist from the Federal University of Santa Catarina; Justino Rezende Tuyuka, an Indigenous scholar from the Federal University of Amazonas; Erika Berenguer, an ecologist from the University of Oxford; and Eduardo Brondizio, an anthropologist from the University of Indiana — discussing the Amazon at a tipping point, the loss of resilience and biodiversity and the challenges of indigenizing conservation science. 

Drought, a phenomenon that should be counterintuitive for a rainforest, is among the latest ongoing struggles Amazonian ecologists must now contend with, said Berenguer. Drought conditions have contributed to megafires that have consumed millions of acres of the Amazon in the last 20 years. “For millions of years, we had no fires. Now we have plenty of fires,” Berenguer highlighted during a presentation that demonstrated how difficult the drought-fire cycle is to break. “We have come to accept a rainforest burning. We have normalized the catastrophe,” she said. 

Marina Hirota, a climate scientist from the Federal University of Santa Catarina, addresses the conference.

 

In the words of Justino Rezende Tuyuka, who recently co-authored with Princeton colleagues an article in Science on Indigenizing conservation science, “Scientists from different fields and Indigenous scholars need to develop methodologies for transdisciplinary and intercultural collaboration. We, Indigenous peoples … can meaningfully contribute to academic research — not merely as objects of study, but as key interlocutors in shaping political strategies and conservation efforts.” Hirota further urged participants to develop a “bottom-up perspective” and consider “how conserved and preserved are the Indigenous territories.” 

Justino Sarmento Rezende, an Indigenous scholar from the Utãpinopona-Tuyuka people, addresses the gathering.

 

In a panel moderated by anthropologist Agustín Fuentes, Princeton scholars Jonathan Levine, J. N. Allison Professor and Chair of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology; David Wilcove, professor of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology and Public Affairs; Jamie Caldwell, associate research scholar at HMEI; and Eric Larson, senior research engineer in the Andlinger Center for Energy and the Environment, presented findings of new studies on climate change and adaptation. 

Larson shared insights from the collaborative Net-Zero Brazil (NZB) study with the audience. The study is in its early stages and is spearheaded by the Andlinger Center, the Brazil LAB, and various Brazilian academic and nonprofit organizations. Modeled on the influential Net-Zero America (NZA) study, which was led by a Princeton team and accelerated climate change mitigation policy action in the U.S., the NZB utilizes a high level of granularity in modeling and will develop an interactive modeling output platform. These modeling efforts and the resulting platform are critical for effectively engaging with the broad set of stakeholders across society whose involvement is essential for making significant progress in decarbonization.

Eric Larson, senior research engineer in the Andlinger Center for Energy and the Environment, left, and David Wilcove, professor of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology and Public Affairs.

 

The research developed by Levine and colleagues provided valuable insights into the relationship between land-based climate mitigation strategies and biodiversity. His presentation emphasized the crucial role of local communities in environmental decision-making. The nuanced message was clear: While technological advancements in climate change mitigation are essential, understanding and preserving local ecosystems remain central to global biodiversity strategies.

Jonathan Levine, J. N. Allison Professor and Chair of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, right; Jamie Caldwell, associate research scholar at HME, left.

A conference participant weighs in.

Brazilian and Princeton Scientists Unite

Brazilian historian Miqueias Mugge, an academic researcher at PIIRS, who, along with Biehl, has co-convened all three Leapfrogging conferences, sees the symposia as belonging to distinct eras in Amazonian climate science: The first, in 2019, was mostly political in nature, given that it coincided with the election of far-right Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro, who promoted deforestation and removal of protective rights for Indigenous populations. The next conference, in 2022, was more solutions based, as it aligned with the ultimately successful presidential campaign of progressive Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, who was expected to end many of Bolsonaro’s policies and to enact protective measures for the Amazon and its people.
The two-day conference showcased international scholars’ work on various aspects of the Amazon, from Indigenous sciences, climate change, conservation, biodiversity and deforestation. “We pair Brazilian and Princeton scientists on all panels to make a dialog happen,” Mugge said. “Princeton’s convening power is essential to establish these conversations.” Mugge explained that one of the guiding principles of an Amazonian leapfrogging is that “environmental conservation and economic development are not mutually exclusive.”

 

A panel discussion at the conference.

 

Presenters weighed in on multiple aspects of the issues surrounding the ecological destruction of the rainforest through climate change, illegal mining and logging, in an extensive interdisciplinary array. Navroz Dubash, professor of Public and International Affairs and HMEI, highlighted the role of the Brazilian government in supporting conservation: “the country developed a credible national policy that has political support in addition to some of the financial engineering,” he said. 

One of the most compelling moments of the academic panels was the discussion of promising pathways to advance the bioeconomy through food systems, as well as the trailblazing research on “water links” that trace the movement of moisture from the Atlantic Ocean to regions across Brazil via the Amazon. “Water is the nexus that connects all of the elements of the Earth system—animals, people, plants, the economy, money. It's all tied to water in the end, and to understand the future of water in one place, we first need to know how that water got there in the first place,” explained scientist Caio Mattos, from the Federal University of Santa Catarina, who led the study in collaboration with Marina Hirota, with support from PIIRS’s Brazil LAB and the Amazônia 2030 Initiative. As an immediate outcome of the Leapfrogging conference, Mattos and Hirota will be collaborating with Reed Maxwell, William and Edna Macaleer Professor of Engineering and Applied Science and HMEI, on various groundwater and water links modelling over Brazil.

A conference participant weighs in.

 

Panelists noted that implementing breakthrough ideas will require innovating scientifically, overcoming siloed technocratic thinking and significant governance and enforcement challenges, garnering strong public support, securing robust investments and developing policies and equitable partnerships that truly value the standing forest, its peoples and the sciences and services they provide. 

In the words of trailblazer archeologist Eduardo Neves, Professor at the University of São Paulo and coordinator of Amazon Revealed, “The Amazon is a biocultural heritage. It's impossible to separate its natural history from its indigenous history. Diversity is the keyword. And the archaeology can tell us parts of the story and point to the future.”

Eduardo Neves presents at the conference.

The Right to a Healthy Environment

Luís Roberto Barroso, the Chief Justice of Brazil’s Supreme Court, provided the conference’s keynote address and engaged in a lively conversation with renowned journalist Razia Iqbal, John L. Weinberg/Goldman Sachs & Co. Visiting Professor and Lecturer at the School of Public and International Affairs. Barroso, whose court handed down a pivotal 2022 ruling asserting the public’s right to a healthy environment, identified three main challenges impacting climate change mitigation and environmental protection: climate denialism on the government level, short-term political motivations and lack of scientific engagement, and the need for global collaboration in order to identify and implement solutions. He called upon notions of intergenerational justice and the role courts must take in protecting Indigenous peoples. 
 

Luís Roberto Barroso, the Chief Justice of Brazil’s Supreme Court, providing the conference’s keynote address.

Luís Roberto Barroso, the Chief Justice of Brazil’s Supreme Court, left, in lively conversation with renowned journalist Razia Iqbal, right, John L. Weinberg/Goldman Sachs & Co. Visiting Professor and Lecturer at the School of Public and International Affairs.

 

After discussing organized environmental crimes in the Amazon and the social inequalities that create a workforce willing to perpetuate them, Barroso concluded with the need to replace those jobs with legitimate ones, asserting the country must also take more seriously the punishment of those in charge of efforts that despoil the Amazon such as land grabbers, drug traffickers and illegal loggers and mining operators. 

“We have all the conditions to become an environmental leader at this moment,” Barroso said. “The Amazon renders all these services to humanity, and we have the duty to protect it.”

 

 

Amazonian Leapfrogging Next Steps
 

In a final panel, Tasso Azevedo enlisted powerful insights and new ideas that emerged throughout the conference. Based on the intense discussions, he outlined a roadmap with six interconnected areas requiring immediate action. On fire prevention, he emphasized the need to improve response capacity through daily pixel-level monitoring of flammability and air quality, as well as tracking the origin of fires. In response to the region’s growing violence, he called for increased control over river traffic, continuous monitoring of clandestine airstrips, and enhanced traceability and alert systems to combat illegal mining. Regarding water, proposals ranged from establishing a comprehensive network of monitoring stations and mapping rivers using Lidar technology to creating mechanisms that ensure hydropower and agribusiness sectors contribute to conservation. To advance the forest-based bioeconomy, Azevedo highlighted the importance of expanding financing for restoration, addressing supply chain bottlenecks, and developing financial structures suited to the unique challenges of the Amazon. He also stressed the need to improve infrastructure for forest peoples, including the electrification of river transport systems. Finally, he called for bold public policy strategies, such as assigning the use of undesignated public lands, accelerating land demarcation for Indigenous and traditional communities, and including secondary vegetation in zero-deforestation commitments.

 

Tasso Azevedo presents at the Leapfrogging conference.

Tasso Azevedo presents at the Leapfrogging conference.

 

The conference quite literally ended in the woods, as participants took part in a Saturday tour through Princeton’s Ridgeview Woods, led by Patricia Shanley and Christopher Barr. The walk offered a chance to appreciate a local forest restoration project while also providing space for debriefing and reflection on the next steps for the Amazonian Leapfrogging initiative.

Conference participants ended their time in Princeton at the Ridgeview Woods. Photography by Nicole Robinson, zenphotography.art