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Tasso Azevedo has stood at the forefront of Brazil’s fight to protect its tropical forests for decades. He founded Imaflora in 1995, an organization which has become the largest Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) forest certifier in the Southern Hemisphere. This work led him to join the Brazilian Ministry of Environment, where he served as the first General Director and Chief of the Brazilian Forest Service, and the co-coordinator of the Action Plan for the Prevention and Control of Deforestation in the Legal Amazon (PPCDAm), which helped cut deforestation in the Amazon by 80% between 2005 and 2012. He was instrumental in the design and implementation of Brazil’s Amazon Fund, the largest REDD+ (Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation in Developing Countries) initiative in the world, and was the creator of the SEEG Network, an initiative to estimate the greenhouse gas emissions from over 600 sources in Brazil, including each state and municipality. A charismatic leader respected by his peers in environmental science, Tasso is now focused on addressing climate change globally.
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November 17, 2025
TED
How to see (and stop) deforestation from space
Nearly 20 trees are cut down every second in the Amazon rainforest, as authorities struggle to monitor millions of acres and stop illegal clear-cutting. But land reformer Tasso Azevedo and his team at MapBiomas have changed the game, transforming satellite imagery into precise, real-time maps that make every clear-cut visible — and every actor accountable. Learn how they're helping slash deforestation in the Amazon, proving that transparency is a forest's strongest defense. (This ambitious idea is part of The Audacious Project, TED’s initiative to inspire and fund global change.)
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