Photo on Global Forest Watch
Photo on CIFOR

Crystal Davis

Director, Global Forest Watch

World Resources Institute

POSITION

Director, Global Forest Watch

COMPANY

World Resources Institute

COUNTRY

USA

SCENE

Environment

SOCIAL

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What makes Crystal Davis a Global Shaker?

Crystal Davis is Director of Global Forest Watch at World Resources Institute (WRI), a near-real-time forest monitoring system that links up technology and human networks to create what it calls “never before possible transparency on what is happening in forests around the world.”

The project, which she has led as Director since 2013, brings together corporate and non-profit partners, including Google and the UN Environment Programme.

In a video, Davis explains that the system works like Google Maps, and that people can use it to receive alerts about where deforestation is occurring.

“Having open and transparent access to information is an important way to start building trust to get people on the same page,” she said. “In the past, information has been something that has been tightly controlled by certain groups, and that can be very disempowering for communities that can’t access the same data that companies can see, or governments can see.

“So we’re trying to level that information playing field and we think that can be a very helpful starting point.”

Before Global Forest Watch, Davis worked on improving forest governance in Brazil, Indonesia, and Cameroon through other WRI initiatives. She also spent time as an environmental consultant in California.

Davis graduated with an undergraduate and Masters degree in Earth Systems Science from Stanford University. She studied environmental governance in Uganda and conservation in tropical rainforests in South America and Eastern Africa.

Tags: Climate crisis, reforestation, USA

Last updated: March 20, 2020