Map of Amazon planned for National Geographic Magazine

BDFFP director Dr. Thomas E. Lovejoy is partnering with National Geographic and the Inter-American Development Bank to create a map of the entire Amazon Basin that will be printed in National Geographic Magazine in September 2015. The idea is to show both the good and the bad aspects of human development -- roads, dams, restoration projects, indigenous communities, etc. -- and why the Amazon Basin needs to be managed across borders as a single, contiguous ecosystem. The other side of the fold-out section will show a cross-section of the biodiversity featured in the region. And Nat Geo is planning to also publish map data (and data stories) online for greater access and utility.

The map will be printed and distributed in English worldwide, in Portuguese in Brazil, and in Spanish in the rest of Latin America (other translations/distributions are possible). The ambition is to not only educate the public about the importance of the Amazon as an anchor of regional and global ecosystems, but also get the map in the hands of all Amazon and Brazilian decision-makers and policy makers.