Dr. Mark J. Plotkin discusses his important new book: The Amazon: What Everyone Needs to Know, from Oxford University Press. He explains why the Amazon matters, what the coronavirus portends in human interaction with nature, and why the leadership legacies of Theodore Roosevelt and Winston Churchill matter in the twenty-first century.
Dr. Plotkin has led the Amazon Conservation Team and guided its vision since 1996, when he co-founded the organization with his fellow conservationist, Liliana Madrigal. He is a renowned ethnobotanist who has spent almost three decades studying traditional plant use with traditional healers of tropical America.
Dr. Plotkin has previously served as Research Associate in Ethnobotanical Conservation at the Botanical Museum of Harvard University; Director of Plant Conservation at the World Wildlife Fund; Vice President of Conservation International; and Research Associate at the Department of Botany of the Smithsonian Institution.
Among his many recognitions, he was named an "Environmental Hero for the Planet" (2001) and Smithsonian magazine hailed him as one of "35 Who Made a Difference" (2005), along with Bill Gates, Steven Spielberg, and fellow New Orleanian Wynton Marsalis.
Image: Amazon Conservation Team
Mark Plotkin | 'The Amazon: What Everyone Needs to Know'