Anthony Anderson

Anthony Anderson is a seasoned Amazon hand, his work in the area spanning three decades. Anthony, who has a doctorate in Ecology, settled in the Brazilian Amazon from the USA in 1975.  He worked as a researcher for the following 15 years, studying forest ecology and forest management by indigenous groups and settlers. 

Anthony arrived in the state of Acre for the first time in the 1980s and soon became immersed in the development of extractive reserves – where local people can make a living from extracting the forest’s resources, such as Brazil nuts and rubber from trees. It was a risky business. He was almost killed by a falling Brazil nut fruit, which is about the size and weight of a small cannon ball and falls from high in the tree tops, 30 to 40 meters up in the canopy. The falling fruit landed just centimetres between him and the current Acre state governor, as they were working together on a project to find ways of making Brazil nut harvesting more profitable for the rubber tappers. From research he moved on to managing grants for the donor organisation Ford Foundation, supporting many projects in the Amazon.

Anthony then returned to his New England homeland in the USA and lived there for 10 years, but was overjoyed to go back to his adopted homeland of Brazil 2 years ago.  Anthony joined WWF just over a year ago to manage their work on forests and climate change. He has seen drastic changes in the Amazon during his time there, and explains that:

One of the positives is the upwelling of local expertise and the strength of civil society that now exists in the Brazilian Amazon. Brazil now has first rate academic institutions and strong local charities, where 30 years ago they had to resort to employing young foreigners like me. That doesn’t need to happen now.