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Burnell Fischer appointed to Nature Conservancy’s sustainable forestry team

The rainforests in South America are a vital global resource, which is why conservationists are constantly working to protect them. Burney Fischer, a clinical professor at SPEA, has been selected to work on sustainability forestry issues with The Nature Conservancy in this area of the world.

Expert perspectives: “The Nature Conservancy’s mission is to preserve the plants, animals and natural communities that represent the diversity of life on Earth by protecting the lands and waters they need to survive,” says Fischer. “Their approach is through a strategic, science-based planning process called Conservation by Design, which helps identify the highest priority places—landscapes and seascapes—that, if conserved, promise to ensure biodiversity over the long term. The forests of Brazil, Bolivia and Chile are among the most biologically diverse and threatened in the world. The conservancy will work with local, regional and international partners in these countries to foster forest conservation by giving incentives to private landowners, engaging local communities in forest restoration efforts, and supporting the creation of public protected areas.”

Fischer has been selected by The Nature Conservancy to serve on a sustainable forestry team that will be reviewing projects in Brazil, Bolivia and Chile and will travel to these countries from Oct. 23 to Nov. 9 to see these projects first-hand. In Brazil, the team will review the Atlantic Forest Project, a program to protect small forest remnants and encourage compatible agro-forestry systems that sustain both the forest and the livelihoods of local communities. The Bolivian Sustainable Forest Management Project, or BOLFOR II, is a USAID project that began working with The Nature Conservancy in 2003. BOLFOR II focuses on conservation and socioeconomic development through forest certification and promotes responsible forest management. Bolivia has become a world leader in natural tropical forest certification with over five million acres certified. The Valdivian Coastal Reserve in Chile is the location of a new TNC/World Wildlife Fund project to restore and reestablish native forests on 147,500 acres of land that was recently purchased from a former forestry company. Initial planning for the area includes the reforestation of 13,000 acres with native species; non-native eucalyptus trees inhabit the area now.

The SPEA toolkit: Burney Fischer's teaching, service, and research focuses on the practice of forestry, particularly the Central Hardwoods. He also has interests in forest resources policy including state government management. This is his first year at SPEA; he previously served as the director of the Indiana Division of Forestry.

Click here to read more about Professor Fischer.

Click here to read more about The Nature Conservancy’s South American project.