National Climate Day: The Fate of Forests

Tom Crowther
Tom Crowther is a scientist specialising in global ecosystem ecology and tenure-track professor at ETH Zürich, where he formed the Crowther Lab. His work aims to generate a holistic understanding of global ecological systems in order to inform and address the global crises of biodiversity loss and climate change. Crowther sits on the steering committee of the Global Forest Biodiversity Initiative and the scientific advisory board of 1t.org (the trillion trees platform launched by the World Economic Forum) among advising other initiatives in support of the UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration.

The fundamental research in the Crowther Lab is intended to guide environmental decision making. Most terrestrial carbon is stored below ground in the soil, and above ground in forest trees. As such, they study interactions between the different components within these ecosystems to better inform our understanding of current and future changes in terrestrial carbon storage. This can directly inform international conservation and restoration efforts by identifying the most important regions to focus in order to have the most effective impacts on climate change and global biodiversity loss.

Rachael Garrett

Rachael Garrett is Assistant Professor of Environmental Policy with dual appointments in the Dept. of Humanities, Social and Political Science and the Dept. of Environmental Systems Science. She is the Chair of Environmental Policy at ETH Zurich and a member of the Institute for Environmental Decisions and Institute of Science, Technology, and Policy.

Her research examines interactions between land use, ecosystem services, and economic development at multiple spatial and temporal scales to better understand the drivers and impacts of land change and the effectiveness of existing conservation and agricultural policies. She is particularly interested in how commodity supply chains interact with environmental institutions to shape land use processes, resource distribution, and trade.

Clara Rowe

Clara Rowe, CEO of Restor, is a sustainability leader based in Zurich, Switzerland. With over 10 years of international experience in natural resource management, development, and sustainable commodity supply chains, Clara brings specific expertise in bridging the gap between global solutions and on-the-ground challenges to ensure strategic impact.

Restor is a new open data platform rooted in science that enables everyone, everywhere to engage in the restoration movement. It was founded by the Crowther Lab, a global ecological research group at ETH Zürich, and co-developed with Google.

Clara is a graduate of the Yale School of the Environment, where some of the very early musings for Restor began. She rejoins forces with Tom Crowther of ETH Zurich to grow Restor into the home for the global restoration movement.