What does it take to bring a devastated forest back to life? Join us on 11 September for a lecture by Carolina Sampaio Machado, Biologist and Head of Institutional Development at Instituto Terra in Minas Gerais, Brazil. She will speak about the Atlantic Forest and the work of Instituto Terra, a Brazilian non-profit founded by Lélia Wanick Salgado and Sebastião Salgado in 1998. Since Portuguese colonization in the 1500s, the Brazilian Atlantic Forest has been one of the most threatened ecosystems in the world. Over the centuries, it has experienced massive deforestation due to the expansion of sugarcane plantations, logging, mining, and cattle ranching, reducing the region’s biome to just a fraction of its original size. For many years, Instituto Terra and other initiatives, have been dedicated to the reforestation and recovery of degraded areas in the Atlantic Forest.

This talk is part of a series of public events on the politics of seeds, plants, and territory. This event will be held in English and is free. As space is limited, registration is required. Admission to the museum is included with your registration.

Carolina Sampaio Machado is a biologist and received her doctorate in environmental sciences from the University of São Paulo, Brazil, where she also completed a postdoc. Her studies focused on understanding how forest protection affects water quality and risks to human health from exposure to contaminants present in soil, water and food. For the past three years. she has been Head of Institutional Development at Instituto Terra, responsible for leading teams in Brazil, the United States, and Europe to develop new projects and raise funds for ecological restoration, environmental education, and sustainable rural development.