Cheyenne Coxon
ManagerCommunications
Cheyenne manages communications staff and projects and leads strategy, outreach, and storytelling across all areas of Forest Trends work in collaboration with Directors and the CEO.
Some of her main interests include One Health, water security, climate resilience, conflict management, and science communication. Cheyenne is a biologist by training, and before joining Forest Trends, worked as a laboratory researcher and animal care aide at the UC Davis Veterinary Medical Teaching Hospital, One Health Institute, and Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute. She completed a Science Communication Fellowship at the National Center for Ecological Analysis and Synthesis (NCEAS) and a land use and water quality risk assessment for Denver Water during her graduate studies. Cheyenne has a B.S. in Animal Science from UC Davis and a master’s from the Bren School of Environmental Science & Management (UC Santa Barbara).
Infographic: Forest-based Value Chains: A New Bioeconomy for the Amazon Forest
By Verena Manolis, Cheyenne Coxon, and Genevieve Bennett View PublicationForest Trends partners with indigenous communities in Brazil’s Tupi Mosaic to develop economic enterprises that promote forest conservation. We’re building sustainable value chains for açaí, artisan products, Brazil nuts, and cacao, and demonstrating the business model for native seeds and seedlings. The “Amazon Bioeconomy” we are building mimics traditional Amazon management systems, creating a diversity […]
The World is Losing Its Forests. Community-led Conservation Can Help.
Infographic
By Cheyenne Coxon and Genevieve Bennett View Publication
Why Gender Equality is at the Heart of Our Water Security Strategy in Peru
By Cheyenne Coxon, Genevieve Bennett, and Gena Gammie View PublicationIn partnership with the Peruvian government, civil society, academia, and women leaders from communities to national ministries, Forest Trends is building a strategy that aims to tackle both water security and gender equality. Our goal is to make increased investment in and capacity for natural infrastructure a central piece of Peru’s water security and climate […]
The Living Pharmacy Project
By Cheyenne Coxon and Genevieve Bennett View PublicationForest Trends has been working with Yawanawa and Suruí indigenous communities since 2014 to establish “Living Pharmacies.” By building medicinal plant gardens in their villages, communities can reclaim and maintain a resource critical to their health and cultural identity. Each Living Pharmacy is a place where elders can pass their traditions on to the next[…]
How Brazil can restore an area twice the size of Germany
Last month, US President Joe Biden pledged $500 million to Brazil’s Amazon Fund to halt deforestation in Brazil, calling forests “the key to our future.” After losing an area of forest greater than the size of Denmark during the Bolsonaro administration, Brazil’s new President, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, has made restoring the Amazon a […]
Four Lessons from Cacoal, Brazil: How to Engage Indigenous Communities in Climate Finance
For indigenous and local communities, climate finance is often an unwelcoming space. Climate finance programs are technical, with complicated methodologies and legal agreements. Most do not disperse funds directly to indigenous peoples and local communities (IPLCs), leaving millions stuck in bureaucratic distribution systems. A minimal percentage of aid money for climate mitigation reaches IPLCs , […]
7 lecciones para ampliar las Soluciones basadas en la Naturaleza para la seguridad hídrica: conclusiones de la primera conferencia de las Naciones Unidas sobre el agua en 46 años
La semana pasada tuvimos el honor de reunir a expertos y profesionales en el Nature Hub en la ciudad de Nueva York durante la Conferencia de las Naciones Unidas sobre el Agua, la primera en 46 años, para compartir las lecciones aprendidas sobre la ampliación de las soluciones basadas en la naturaleza (SbN) para el […]
7 Lessons for Scaling up Nature-based Solutions for Water Security: Takeaways from the First UN Water Conference in 46 Years
Last week we were honored to gather experts and practitioners at the Nature Hub in New York City during the UN Water Conference – the first in 46 years – to share lessons learned on scaling up nature-based solutions (NBS) for water. The main aim of the conference this year was to accelerate action to achieve […]
The legal structure for biodiversity benefits-sharing already exists in Brazil. Here’s how it can serve communities
Beto Borges, Director of the Communities and Territorial Governance Initiative, speaks with Rodrigo Sales, an environmental lawyer from Brazil and expert in environmental markets, climate change, and sustainability law. They discuss a recent collaborative analysis of the Brazilian Biodiversity Law and how it can be an effective instrument for ensuring indigenous and local communities receive […]
What Brazil’s new government means for indigenous and local forest-based economies
For the first time in years, there is an administration in Brazil that is aligned with our priorities here at Forest Trends – in particular those of supporting local and indigenous environmental defenders, and advancing governance and policy that aims to conserve the environment rather than exploit it. Brazil is in the midst of several […]
How Peru is scaling up nature-based solutions for water and climate resilience — and what it can teach the world
If last year’s climate talks in Glasgow, Scotland are any indicator, we can expect to see even more urgent calls and commitments for scaling-up nature-based climate solutions at the upcoming COP27 in Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt. These calls recognize that nature-based solutions (NBS)—which include actions to conserve and restore critical ecosystems like forests, wetlands, grasslands, […]
Using local knowledge and materials is the ultimate gift: A conversation with Paula Ellinger
Beto Borges: We have been partners with Kurumi since its early days, which we’re really excited about. We’d like to hear a little bit more about what inspired you to base your business off of partnerships with indigenous artisans. Paula Ellinger: Kurumi, which means “child” in Tupi-Guaraní, was born as an idea to provide alternative […]
How much cocoa is coming from illegally deforested lands?
The author would like to thank Marigold Norman, Philip Rothrock, Genevieve Bennett, and Kerstin Canby for their contributions. This post is the second in a series on the cocoa supply chain. In the first blog post of our cocoa series, we examined the voluntary commitments of influential chocolate companies that have been making commitments to […]
“I saw the collision of two worlds.” Estêvão Ciavatta on the frontlines of forest conflict in the Amazon
Beto Borges, Director of Forest Trends’ Communities and Territorial Governance Initiative, talks with award-winning Brazilian screenwriter, director, and film producer Estevão Ciavatta on conflicting visions for development in the Amazon, land grabbing, and the role he hopes his film, Amazonia Undercover, can play in spotlighting these tensions and environmental destruction in Brazil. This conversation has […]
The Long View: A Conversation with Céline Cousteau
Beto Borges, Director of Forest Trends’ Communities and Territorial Governance Initiative talks with Céline Cousteau, humanitarian, environmental activist, filmmaker, and founder of the Javari Project for a conversation on her work with indigenous communities in Brazil. This conversation has been edited and condensed from its original version. Beto Borges: Thank you for being here, Céline. You’ve recently […]
How to Redesign Climate Funding to Better Support the Amazon’s Indigenous Communities
International climate funding, including the REDD+ mechanism, is falling short when it comes to supporting indigenous forest guardians in the Amazon and elsewhere in the world, according to a panel of experts convened on Thursday, December 10th for a virtual roundtable on the subject. The discussion, hosted by Forest Trends and moderated by Andrew Revkin […]
The Western Fight Against Biodiversity Loss Needs More Indigenous and Local Community Perspectives
When most of us think of conservation, we think of remote, wild places. In the United States, the National Park system often represents this ideal. Elsewhere, iconic landscapes like the Serengeti in Tanzania or the rainforests of the Amazon and southeast Asia come to mind. For over a century, the conservation model has been dominated […]
How Indigenous Technology Can Drive New Discoveries In Western Medicine
Forest Trends’ Beto Borges, Director of our Communities and Territorial Governance Initiative, talks to Dr. Steve King, EVP Sustainable Supply, Ethnobotanical Research & IP in a wide-ranging conversation on indigenous technology, a game-changing new drug developed from an Amazonian tree, and the next frontier in scientific discovery. This conversation has been edited and condensed from […]
“We Really Need to Come Home.” The Future of Biodiversity, A Conversation with Dr. Bruce Beehler
Michael Jenkins: I am here with Dr. Bruce Beehler, who is a research associate at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History. We first met in 1991 in the highlands of Papua New Guinea looking for birds of paradise. Prior to his retirement, he worked at the Wildlife Conservation Society and Conservation International. He is […]