9:56 a.m.
Dear IUFRO Meliaceae Working Party:
Below is the announcement on the XPRIZE Rainforest and IUFRO Partner up for
a Better Understanding of Rainforests. More information on the XPRIZE
Rainforest at
https://rainforest.xprize.org/prizes/rainforest#:~:text=The%20XPRIZE%20Rain…
Regards,
Sheila Ward
Associate Coordinator
IUFRO WP 1.02.04
---------- Forwarded message ---------
From: IUFRO Headquarters <office(a)iufro.org>
Date: Thu, Jan 27, 2022 at 3:09 PM
Subject: XPRIZE Rainforest and IUFRO Partner up for a Better Understanding
of Rainforests
To: Dear IUFRO Officeholder <mahoganyforthefuture(a)gmail.com>
<https://www.iufro.org/>
* International Union of Forest Research Organizations *
XPRIZE Rainforest and IUFRO Partner up for a Better Understanding of
Rainforests
[image: Photo showing trees behind lake]
Photo praesentator on Pixabay
While all forest types are critically important for biodiversity
conservation, it is essential to remember that the world's shrinking
rainforests, which cover less than 2% of our planet's total surface area,
are home to about 50% of all known plant and animal species.
Launched in 2019, the $10 Million XPRIZE Rainforest
<https://www.xprize.org/prizes/rainforest> is
<https://www.xprize.org/prizes/rainforest> a five-year global competition
challenging innovators to develop new technologies to rapidly and
comprehensively survey rainforest biodiversity and use those data to
improve shared understandings of this ecosystem. To support and promote the
competition, XPRIZE Rainforest has now entered into a partnership agreement
with IUFRO <https://www.iufro.org/>, the International Union of Forest
Research Organizations, which unites more than 15,000 scientists in around
650 Member Organizations in over 125 countries.
The competition calls on innovators to develop novel technologies for
identifying and cataloging rainforest biodiversity and to deliver insights
from integrating multiple sources of data to show the value of the
biodiversity contained within standing tropical rainforests globally.
Co-designing and co-creating solutions with Indigenous Peoples and local
communities as key stakeholders is part of the prize framework. Based on
the partners' knowledge, experience, as well as human and technical
resources in the field of innovation, the partnership aims to foster global
interdisciplinary scientific collaboration, including forest science, to
find solutions to pressing global challenges.
IUFRO experts are invited to join teams in the competition. Additionally,
they will be invited to support XPRIZE Rainforest with informational
sessions, workshops, trainings, and/or other initiatives to support teams
that participate in the competition, especially if they have gaps in
expertise that IUFRO scientists could fill. The partners will also promote
the development and deployment of innovative technological solutions to key
stakeholders during and after the competition to make an impact that
supports the health of this vital ecosystem and sustainable societal
interactions with rainforests world-wide.
Beyond this, IUFRO and XPRIZE will explore additional opportunities to
collaborate on future prize competitions related to forests, conservation,
and climate change.
"XPRIZE is committed to the future of life on our planet and establishing
strategic partnerships to ensure an equitable and sustainable future for
humanity," said Peter Houlihan, VP Biodiversity & Conservation XPRIZE. "To
achieve this, we are excited to work with IUFRO on XPRIZE Rainforest, a
five-year, ten-million-dollar global competition incentivizing
interdisciplinary teams from all over the world to increase and expedite
shared understandings of tropical rainforests worldwide, to more
effectively monitor, manage, and conserve the world's most biodiverse
forests."
"IUFRO's global network for forest research collaboration accelerates the
development and sharing of multi-disciplinary forest-related knowledge,"
said IUFRO President John Parrotta. "Our partnership with XPRIZE creates an
important and exciting opportunity to further share this knowledge and
develop innovative tools to conserve tropical rainforests and the multiple
benefits that they provide to all those who value and depend on them."
For further information about XPRIZE Rainforest, please visit:
XPRIZE Rainforest | XPRIZE Foundation
<https://rainforest.xprize.org/prizes/rainforest#:~:text=The%20XPRIZE%20Rainforest%20will%20accelerate%20the%20innovation%20of,as%20well%20as%20inspire%20new%20investment%20and%20exploration.>
IUFRO members who want to learn more about the partnership benefits, please
visit our Partnership webpages: IUFRO: XPrize / IUFRO's Partners / Discover
IUFRO <https://www.iufro.org/discover/iufro-partners/xprize/>
*################ *
*IUFRO Contact:*
Gerda Wolfrum, Communications, wolfrum(a)iufro.org
*XPRIZE Contact: *
Arnaud Cahen, Vice President Program Activation, Arnaud.Cahen(a)xprize.org
*XPRIZE* is a global future-positive movement of over 1M people and rising,
delivering truly radical breakthroughs for the benefit of humanity. XPRIZE
inspires and empowers a global community of problem-solvers to positively
impact our world by crowdsourcing solutions through large-scale
competitions, tackling the world's grandest challenges in exploration,
environment and human equity. Active competitions include the $100 Million
XPRIZE Carbon Removal with Elon Musk, $15 Million XPRIZE Feed the Next
Billion, $10 Million XPRIZE Rainforest, $10 Million ANA Avatar XPRIZE, $5
Million XPRIZE Rapid Reskilling and $1 Million Digital Learning Challenge.
Donate, sign up or join a team at xprize.org.
The *International Union of Forest Research Organizations* (IUFRO) is a
world-wide organization devoted to forest research and related sciences.
Its members are research institutions, universities, and individual
scientists as well as decision-making authorities and other stakeholders
with a focus on forests and trees. https://www.iufro.org
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