UR Geography and the Environment Professor David Salisbury Receives Grant to Map Threatened Borderlands in the Amazon

November 27, 2018

David Salisbury David Salisbury, University of Richmond associate professor and chair of the Department of Geography and the Environment, has received a grant from the Pan-American Institute of Geography and History to research environmental challenges in the Amazon.

Along with collaborators in South America, Salisbury will lead a project focused on identifying and mapping environmental challenges in the Peruvian and Brazilian Amazon.

Results will be shared with local communities, universities, governments, and others focused on the reconciliation of conservation and development in the Amazon borderlands.

“The area of interest contains a mosaic of protected areas, including some of the most biodiverse landscapes in the Amazon rainforest, as well as reserves set aside for Indigenous people,” Salisbury said.

With this support, the research team will participate in a workshop to accomplish three important goals –

  1. Update a transboundary geospatial database
  2. Identify threats to Amazonian biological and cultural diversity
  3. Create a suite of thematic maps useful for planning.

Up to two UR students will receive funding to accompany Salisbury to the Amazon to participate in the workshop and assist with the mapping and spatial analysis. Over the last decade Salisbury has supervised ten students conducting research in the Amazon.

Salisbury has taught geography, environmental studies, and global studies at UR since 2007. His research focuses on the balance between conservation, development, and Indigenous rights in the Amazon.

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The Pan American Institute for Geography and History is an international, scientific, and technical organization of the Organization of American States, dedicated to creating and transferring specialized knowledge in the areas of Cartography, Geography, History, and Geophysics. It aims to keep researchers and scientific institutions in the Member States up to date and in permanent communication with each other.