Follow us on Twitter!

We are hiring for a Software Developer to support our work mapping the cattle supply chain in the Brazilian Amazon. This is an exciting moment as the government of Brazil has made new commitments to enhanced supply chain transparency and traceability. For info and directions to apply click HERE.

New opening for PhD candidate or post-doctoral scientist position with expertise in carbon cycling, ecosystem modeling, or agricultural land use to study soil carbon fluxes and climate mitigation opportunities associated with U.S. grasslands, croplands, and the USDA Conservation Reserve Program (CRP). For info and directions to apply click HERE.

About GLUE

Human land-use change has transformed our world more than any other environmental change. These land-use impacts rival climate change and pressure is mounting with growing population and consumption trends. In the Global Land Use and Environment Lab (GLUE), we study human environment interactions and aim to reconcile forest conservation, climate change, and food security by informing policy and market-based strategies. We use GIS, remotely sensed imagery, econometrics, Big Data, and commodity supply-chain analysis combined with stakeholder interviews in the field to understand how and why humans use land around the world. We also quantify what these land-use changes mean for ecosystem services, particularly carbon storage and emissions. Our work bridges disciplines, scales and perspectives by linking the top-down global view with the detailed place-based view provided by case studies and field work. We are also committed to communicating our science through the media and policy briefs for general audiences.

We aim to make change in the world by conducting scientific research immediately relevant to policymakers, industry, non-governmental organizations and others working on the ground. In GLUE, we frequently establish partnerships with policy and action-focused organizations and industry, and work with them to identify tipping point questions that could inform our scholarship.

Lab News

FEBRUARY, 28 2024
Lisa Rausch was interviewed for the Grist article 'Who's behind the destruction of Brazil's Cerrado?'. Click here to read the article.
FEBRUARY, 21 2024
Come see Lisa Rausch along with others present at the Climate, People and the Environment program's seminar 'Catch up on COP28' on February 27th. For more information about the event click here.
JANUARY, 2 2024
Lisa Rausch was interviewed in a short film by Context about the impacts of cattle production in the Brazilian Amazon. Watch the film here.
DECEMBER, 27 2023
Congratulations to professor Holly Gibbs on her nomination and receipt of the Vilas Mid-Career Investigator Award!
DECEMBER, 18 2023
Matt Christie was interviewed by The Center for High Throughput Computing on his work bringing the potential of HTC to track the movement of cattle and land use change in Brazil. Read the article here.
DECEMBER, 4 2023
Congratulations to professor Holly Gibbs for making it onto Clarivate’s Highly Cited Researchers list for 2023! This distinction goes to the top 0.1% of researchers in the Web of Science citation rankings in their field of research over the last decade. Take a look at all of Gibbs' published works here.
DECEMBER, 1 2023
GLUE awarded $1,000,000 by the Bezos Earth Fund to develop a data system to track meat and leather trade in the Amazon. Read about it here.
NOVEMBER, 14 2023
Amintas led a new paper on "Challenges and opportunities to eliminate deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon" published by the FAPESP. Read the paper in multiple languages here.
NOVEMBER, 8 2023
The Gibbs Land Use and Environment Lab hosted Dr. Ricardo Negrini, from the Federal Public Prosecutors office, for a week of intensive science policy discussions. See him in action here.
NOVEMBER, 1 2023
GLUE research on "Agricultural intensification and public health: Evidence from Brazilian soy expansion” published in PNAS! Congrats to Marin, Kait and Holly! Read about this important work here.
OCTOBER, 17 2023
Amintas Brandão presented at the 2023 Lovejoy Symposium: A Turning Point for the Amazon, in Washington, D.C.. Learn about the event here.
OCTOBER, 11 2023
Lisa Rausch and Clare Sullivan attended the forum "International cases of success in cattle traceability: A look at Colombia", held at Bogotá🇨🇴, Colombia. Watch Lisa's presentation here. Click here to see photos from their trip.
SEPTEMBER, 25 2023
GLUE collaborator, Dr. Sam Levy, was awarded the Swiss Forum for International Agricultural Research award for their co-authored paper on "The effectiveness of corporate zero-deforestation commitments at reducing agricultural deforestation in Brazil”.
SEPTEMBER, 14 2023
A research paper lead by Amintas Brandão and supported by members of the GLUE team, "Mapping Slaughterhouse Supply Zones in the Brazilian Amazon with Cattle Transit Records", was published in the journal Land. Read the paper here.
AUGUST, 26 2023
Congratulations to Larissa Danielson on her new position as a Trade Policy Officer with the Asia Pacific Division in the Foreign Agricultural Service, which is housed under the USDA.
JULY, 31 2023
Congratulations to Dr. Seth Spawn for successfully defending his PhD dissertation "Time and Space for Natural Climate Solutions in Agricultural Landscapes! Click here to see photos of his accomplishment.
JULY, 26 2023
Congratulations to Dr. Yanhua Xie who will begin a new faculty position at the University of Oklahoma in their department of Geography and Environmental Sustainability!
JULY, 25 2023
Congratulations to GLUE graduate Dr. Nicole Karwowski who will begin a new faculty position at the Montana State University in the Agricultural Economics and Economics department!
JULY, 19 2023
Congratulations to Delaney Gobster for defending her M.S. in Agroecology “Beyond Excess to Access: Visualizing Regional Foodscapes”!
JULY, 10 2023
Dr. Juliana Brandão presented her dissertation research on forced labor in Brazil at the International Labor Organization conference in Geneva, Switzerland. See her in action here.
JUNE 27, 2023
Amintas Brandão was quoted in Vox article about the decline of forests globally. Read the article here.
JUNE 2, 2023
Lisa Rausch was quoted in Forbidden Stories article about how beef what is linked to deforestation is exported to Europe. Read the article here.
MAY 23, 2023
Tyler Lark joined Wisconsin Public Radio to discuss his new research on biofuels and endangered species. You can read or listen to the interview here.
MAY 19, 2023
Holly Gibbs was quoted and cited in Mongabay for an article about a new Twitter bot that tracks deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon. Read the article here.
MAY 12, 2023
Congrats to Celeste for her suite of 2023 awards to support her work in the Peruvian Amazon! AGS Council Fellowship, CLAG Field Study Grant, Tinker-Nave Research grant, and Trewartha Research grant!
MAY 9, 2023
Holly Gibbs moderated the Solutions for Sustainable Food Systems in Brazil event held by Wilson's Center Brazil Institute on May 9 where Minister Carlos Fávaro, the Minister of the Brazilian Ministry of Agriculture, gave the opening talk. The event was held in partnership with ABIEC (Brazilian Beef Exporters Association) and was attended by the world’s foremost leaders in addressing deforestation and agricultural sustainability in Brazil, including Dr. Daniel Azeredo, along with key leaders from the US. GLUE research Amintas Brandão was also in attendance. You can read about and see pictures of the event here.
MAY 1, 2023
Holly Gibbs and Seth Spawn co-authored a paper that was named for a International Champion of the Frontiers Planet Prize.
MAY 1, 2023
Congratulations to Seth Spawn for being named an 'outstanding reviewer' for Environmental Research Letters for a third time. Additionally, Seth was appointed to the Environmental Research Letters advisory panel.
APRIL 28, 2023
Seth Spawn and Holly Gibbs were awarded the Frontiers Planet Prize for their joint work resulting in the publication 'Dietary change in high-income nations alone can lead to substantial double climate dividend' in Nature Food. The Frontiers Planet Prize rewards key science for the future of Humanity on Earth, of how to navigate our future within Planetary Boundaries. A most deserved recognition!
APRIL 10, 2023
Congratulations to Delaney Gobster on being awarded a CIAS grant for her summer research project, "Geographies of Food Excess and Access: Participatory Mapping & Geovizualization of Dane County Foodscapes". Delaney will be presenting at the Agroecology Symposium's poster session at noon on April 12th. See her poster here.
FEBRUARY 28, 2023
Matt Christie presented a lighting talk at the UW's Shaping Futures with Data and Computing Research Bazaar. To watch his talk on Match-Making in the Brazilian Amazon: Data integration to avoid deforestation, click here.
JANUARY, 10 2023
Congratulations to GLUE graduate Dr. Fanny Moffette on her new faculty position at the University of Quebec in Montreal’s Department of Economics! See her new position here.
JANUARY 5, 2023
GLUE paper "Environmental outcomes of the US Renewable Fuel Standard", led by Tyler Lark, Seth Spawn, and Holly Gibbs was listed as the 15th most talked about climate paper in 2022 for news and social media attention! . Check it out here.
NOVEMBER 9, 2022
Amintas, Lisa, and Holly participated in HSBC Securities webcast with NWF about cattle traceability tools on Nov 3, 2022.
NOVEMBER 9, 2022
Amintas, Lisa and Holly led a webcast ESG Deforestation event for HSBC Securities on cattle traceability on Oct 27, 2022. Watch replay here.
NOVEMBER 7, 2022
Holly Gibbs was quoted in a Nature News story about President-elect Lula's victory in Brazil. Read the article here.
NOVEMBER 1, 2022
We're hiring for two new postdoc positions. One to work on remote sensing of U.S. agriculture and irrigation, for more infomation click here. The second position is to work on Carbon modeling and land use, for more information click here.
OCTOBER 25, 2022
New Science Writer Position in GLUE. For more information and directions to apply click here.
OCTOBER 18, 2022
GLUE team published Conservation Letters paper showing that “Protected areas are still used to produce Brazil’s cattle." Read press release in English or in Portuguese. Corrected Figure 1 available here.
OCTOBER 4, 2022
SEPTEMBER, 1 2022
Congratulations to GLUE graduate Dr. Marin Skidmore on her new faculty position at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign’s Department of Agricultural and Consumer Economics! See her new position here.
AUGUST 15, 2022
Tyler Lark and GLUE research quoted in TIME magazine article on ethanol as a climate solution. Read it here.
AUGUST 4, 2022
Yanhua Xie and Tyler Lark discuss on Wisconsin Public Radio the latest threats to America's farmland. Listen Read here.
JUNE 8, 2022
The Gibbs Lab along with partners Solidaridad are excited to have our USAID Amazonia Connect initiative highlighted by the Biden Administration as part of the US Government’s response to address climate change. Read about it here.
MAY 29, 2022
Lisa Rausch was quoted in the Star Tribune for a story about Cargill's attempt to open a new soy port in Brazil. Read the article here.
APRIL 7, 2022
Gibbs lab members reply to comments on their new PNAS corn ethanol paper. Read the response here.
MARCH 23, 2022
Clare Sullivan was recognized with the 2022 Clarence W. Olmstead Award for Outstanding Teaching in recognition of her exceptional work in Geography 339 for the past two semesters!
MARCH 9, 2022
Holly Gibbs was quoted in a Washington Post story about US government efforts to ban imports of beef linked to deforestation. Read the story here.
MARCH 4, 2022
Congrats to Dr. Marin Skidmore who just accepted a faculty position at the University of Illinois where she’ll be working in the Department of Agricultural and Consumer Economics!
MARCH 4, 2022
Congrats to Dr. Kaitlyn Sims who just accepted a faculty position as the Assistant Professor of Microeconomics for Public Policy at the Korbel School of International Studies at the University of Denver!
FEBRUARY 14, 2022
Tyler, Seth, Matt, and Holly publish paper in PNAS that finds corn-based ethanol is worse for climate than gasoline. Read the paper here.
FEBRUARY 10, 2022
Holly Gibbs was quoted in an article from the Guardian on loopholes allowing deforestation on soy farm in the Amazon. Read the article here.
FEBRUARY 7, 2022
Seth Spawn's work on mapping global irrecoverable carbon was featured this month for an article from Inside UW. Read it here.
FEBRUARY 3, 2022
Clare, Lisa and Holly were invited to serve as International Advisors to CPAM, the Centro de Pensamiento Amazonias at the National University of Colombia
JANUARY 21, 2022
Holly Gibbs was quoted in a Bloomberg article looking into Brazil’s zero-deforestation cattle agreements. Read the article here.
JANUARY 10, 2022
Seth Spawn and Holly Gibbs have new paper on Dietary changes can lead to double climate dividend in Nature Food. Read the paper here.
DECEMBER 14, 2021
Congrats to Holly Gibbs and Jules Reynolds on winning Kemper Knapp Bequest funds! For their project, Holly's Env St / Geog 309 (People, Land & Food) course will work with UniverCity Alliance.
NOVEMBER 22, 2021
GLUE partners with the Leather Working Group to map leather supply chains. Read about the project here.
NOVEMBER 17, 2021
Holly Gibbs was quoted in the Washington Post article "E.U. seeks to block import of commodities that drive deforestation", read the article here.
NOVEMBER 17, 2021
Holly Gibbs was quoted in the New York Times article "How Americans’ Appetite for Leather in Luxury SUVs Worsens Amazon Deforestation" Read the article here.
NOVEMBER 8, 2021
Holly Gibbs was quoted in a Popular Science article on the possibility of ending deforestation. Read the article here.
NOVEMBER 7, 2021
Congrats to Matt Christie for his acceptance to the Environmental Data Science Summit hosted by National Center for Ecological Analysis and Synthesis in Santa Barbara!
OCTOBER 21, 2021
Tyler Lark’s research garners attention with national publications and conferences. Read about everywhere his work has been recently featured here.
OCTOBER 21, 2021
Lisa Rausch presented some of the lab's recent results to the 7th International Conference on Land Governance and Economic Development hosted by the Instituto Governança de Terras.
OCTOBER 14, 2021
Tyler Lark’s research garners attention with national publications and conferences. Read about everywhere his work has been recently featured here.
SEPTEMBER 14, 2021
Tyler Lark’s recent papers on sustainable cropping systems were highlighted by the Great Lakes Bioenergy Research Center. Read about the findings here.
JUNE 3, 2021
Gibbs has been awarded the H.I. Romnes Faculty Fellowship, funded by the Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation, a non-profit organization promoting scientific research at UW – Madison! Read about it here.
APRIL 26, 2021
Kaitlyn Sims was awarded the Henry Anderson III Graduate Research Award from the UW-Madison Global Health Institute!
APRIL 20, 2021
Lisa Rausch has a new publication on the role of CAR on land use in the American Journal of Agricultural Economics. Read the paper here.
MARCH 30, 2021
Brazilian geotechnology firm Agrosatélite published a new report on soy expansion in the Amazon, with support from GLUE. Read there report here.
MARCH 29, 2021
Lisa Rausch and Holly Gibbs have a new publication on the low opportunity costs of the Soy Moratorium.
MARCH 5, 2021
Marin Skidmore, Kaitlyn Sims, and Holly Gibbs awarded grant from the Global Health Initiative to assess the potential impact of soy expansion on cancer rates in the Brazilian Amazon and Cerrado biomes.
MARCH 3, 2021
New publication and data by GLUE highlights the accuracy of USDA crop maps.
FEBRUARY 9, 2021
GLUE paper on US cropland conversion featured in Nature Communications Editor's Highlights collection.
DECEMBER 28, 2020
Clare Sullivan was awarded a Graduate Student Research & Writing Award from UW's Center for Culture, History, and the Environment!
DECEMBER 17, 2020
Holly contributed to a Bloomberg article about the beef industry's role in Amazon deforestation. Read the article here.
SEPTEMBER 8, 2020
Tyler Lark featured in a Q&A and story about grassland conservation. Read the full publication in Land Use Policy here.
AUGUST 28, 2020
Holly Gibbs was featured in a new Reuters Special Report on the challenges of addressing deforestation in Brazil's cattle supply chains. Read the report here.
AUGUST 6, 2020
The global soil and biomass carbon maps published in Nature Scientific Data by Seth Spawn, Clare Sullivan, Tyler Lark and Holly Gibbs are now available to anybody through Google Earth Engine -- a geospatial cloud computing environment used by thousands of researchers around the world. Take a look at the data here.
JULY 17, 2020
Holly Gibbs and Lisa Rausch coauthored a paper with Raoni Rajão in Science, linking international buyers of Brazil's agricultural commodities to illegal deforestation. Read the paper here.
JULY 15, 2020
Holly Gibbs and Lisa Rausch were both quoted in Amnesty International's new report on illegally grazed cattle in the Brazilian Amazon. Read the report here.
JUNE 11, 2020
Holly Gibbs quoted in Economist article considering the needed incentives to help big soy and meatpacking companies avoid buying from properties with deforestation under Bolsonaro's government. Read the article here.
MAY 26, 2020
Seth Spawn and Holly Gibbs were featured in The Commons about their work with Clare Sullivan and Tyler Lark to map the world’s carbon. Read the article here.
APRIL 28, 2020
Seth Spawn was awarded a Trewartha Research grant for his work on climate change impacts on agriculture!
APRIL 25, 2020
Lisa Rausch was quoted in an article about deforestation in beef supply chains of French supermarkets for the French news magazine Mediapart. Read the article here.
APRIL 17, 2020
Holly Gibbs was awarded a prestigious and highly competitive H.I. Romnes Faculty Fellowship.
MARCH 25, 2020
Seth Spawn was selected as an IOP Publishing ‘Outstanding Reviewer’ Award Winner in recognition of the high quality and timeliness of his reviews in 2019!
MARCH 3, 2020
Lisa Rausch was interviewed by the Christian Science Monitor for an article on how cattle ranchers in the Amazon can help contribute to the halting of deforestation. Read the article here.
MARCH 3, 2020
The GLUE lab released a report on Amazon deforestation linked to European imports via specially licensed ranches and their suppliers. Read the report here.
MARCH 2, 2020
The GLUE lab released a report on the role of Brazil's cattle sector in the 2019 fire season. Read the report here.
FEBRUARY 28, 2020
Holly Gibbs was interviewed as part of the cover story for On Wisconsin. Read the article here.
FEBRUARY 20, 2020
Holly Gibbs was interviewed by the Guardian about monitoring cattle supply chains in Brazil and her work helping develop VISIPEC, a tool that can be used to monitor indirect cattle suppliers. Read the article here.
DECEMBER 13, 2019
PhD student Clare Sullivan led a policy brief on Zero Deforestation Commitments in Colombia's beef and dairy sectors. Read the policy brief here.
DECEMBER 4, 2019
UW and NWF lead a policy brief entitled “Amazon Soy Moratorium: Delivering Win-Win Outcomes for Forests and Agribusiness”. Read the policy brief here.
OCTOBER 22, 2019
GLUE hosts Paulo Barreto from Imazon for discussions about finance levers in Brazil’s cattle sector.
OCTOBER 10, 2019
Lisa, Matt, Jake, Amintas, Ian and Holly were featured in a New York Times article - Why Did a Vow to End Amazon Fires Falter? Blame ‘Cattle Laundering’.
OCTOBER 3, 2019
Holly Gibbs was interviewed by Mongabay about Brazil’s cattle sector, read the article here.
SEPTEMBER 20, 2019
GLUE researchers developed technological innovations for the National Wildlife Federation’s new cattle supply chain traceability system, VISIPEC — a cloud-based system that is freely available to help Brazilian agribusiness improve supply chain management and achieve their zero-deforestation commitments. Read about it here.
SEPTEMBER 12, 2019
GLUE hosts Prof. Raoni Rajao from the University of Minas Gerais for his Weston Lecture. Read about it here.
SEPTEMBER 3, 2019
A new paper led by the Gibbs lab on Soy in Brazil's Cerrado was featured in Nature's research highlights. Read the article here.
SEPTEMBER 3, 2019
Dr. Lisa Rausch was quoted in an article about the international response to deforestation in Brazil. Read the article here.
JULY 10, 2019
Dr. Lisa Rausch was quoted in a Mongabay article about her work on soy in the Brazilian Cerrado. Read the article here.
MAY 9, 2019
Seth Spawn was interviewed by Physics World about his research into the carbon emissions released via cropland expansion. Read the article here.
MAY 7, 2019
Gibbs lab work was covered by the Wisconsin State Journal, to read the article click here.
APRIL 30, 2019
Juliana Brandão gave a research presentation titled, "Empowering workers to foster social-environmental protection in the Brazilian Amazon" For more information on her talk click here.
APRIL 24-26, 2019
Lab members Lisa Rausch, Tyler Lark and Amintas Brandão all presented their work at the 4th Open Science Meeting in Bern, Switzerland hosted by the Global Land Programme. Read about the conference here.
APRIL 6-10, 2019
Clare Sullivan presented her work, Clean pastures: Forest governance, land holdings and cattle in Colombia, at the 2019 AAG Annual Meeting in Denver, CO.
APRIL 2019
A paper co-authored by Holly and Lisa received second place in the Mapbiomas Award! Check out their paper here.
APRIL 2019
Congratulations to Amintas Brandao Jr. who was awarded the Arthur B. Sacks Award for Graduate Excellence in Environmental Studies and Sustainability!
APRIL 2019
Fanny, Lisa, and Holly, in collaboration with professor Dan Phaneuf (Dept of Applied Economics), were awarded a grant to assess how land prices and location influence land conversion in the Brazilian Cerrado.
APRIL 3, 2019
Seth Spawn, GLUE/SAGE PhD student, was awarded the Department of Geography’s 2019 Olmstead Award for outstanding publication for his recent paper in Environmental Research Letters on Carbon emissions from cropland expansion in the United States. Read the paper here.
MARCH 2019
Melanie Kohls, Cart-GIS M.S. program, joins GLUE to help map land use change and cattle supply chains across Colombia. Welcome, Melanie!
JANUARY 31, 2019
Seth Spawn and Dr. Tyler Lark published a Special Issue Article in Environmental Research Letters on the carbon emissions from cropland expansion in the United States, Read the article here.
NOVEMBER 14, 2018
Dr. Tyler Lark and Seth Spawn co-authored a paper with the Nature Conservancy and 20 other institutions on the how greenhouse gas emissions can be reduced and stored in forests, farmland, grasslands, and wetlands. Check out the press release or read the article here.
SEPTEMBER 2018
Dr. Lisa Rausch was quoted in Science News, read the article here.
AUGUST 19, 2018
Holly Gibbs was quoted in an article about an area teen using his culinary skills to help deal with the problem of invasive species in Madison lakes. Read about it here.
AUGUST 2018
Tyler Lark helps discuss the EPA's new report about biofuels. Catch the press release and participants' comments here.
AUGUST 2018
Food Waste Cookbook created by undergraduate students led by Tyler Lark and Holly Gibbs was featured in a food waste blog, check it out here.
JULY 2018
Holly Gibbs (PI) and Lisa Rausch (co-PI) awarded $975,000 in funding from the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation's Coalition for Forests and Agriculture to continue our work on zero-deforestation commitments in the Brazilian Amazon and Cerrado biomes over the next three years.
JULY 2018
Tyler Lark, Seth Spawn, and Holly Gibbs hosted colleagues from the University of Minnesota’s Northstar Enterprise for Sustainable Business for our collaboration around supply chain sustainability in the U.S.
JULY 2018
Tyler Lark presented at a Congressional briefing sponsored by the Safe Climate Caucus on the environmental impacts of the Renewable Fuels Standard. Read about it here.
JULY 2018
Holly Gibbs (PI), Lisa Rausch (co-PI), Matthew Christie, and Jacob Munger from the Gibbs Lab, along with co-PI AnHai Doan from the Department of Computer Science were awarded a UW Data Science Initiative grant to support their project “Using Data Science to Transform Global Supply Chains and Make Progress in Saving the Amazon Rainforest". Read about it here.
JUNE 2018
Seth Spawn presented his work mapping global carbon stocks at a meeting of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change's (UNFCCC) Subsidiary Body for Scientific and Technological Advice (SBSTA) in Bonn, Germany.
JUNE 2018
Gibbs quoted in Mongabay article about how the US/China trade war could boost Brazil soy export and Amazon deforestation, read the article here.
MAY 30, 2018
Congratulations to Amintas Brandao for his leading role recent publication in Nature Scientific Data “SEEG initiative estimates of Brazilian GHG emissions from 1970 to 2015.
MAY 2018
Clare Sullivan and Marin Skidmore were awarded LACIS Nave summer research grants to support their work in Colombia and in Brazil!
MAY 2018
Juliana Brandão was awarded a scholarship in the International business and environment program at the Washington University of Law.
APRIL 2018
Marin Skidmore awarded Fulbright Research Fellowship for her project to study "The effect of the G4 cattle agreements on smallholders in the Amazon".
APRIL 2018
Juliana Brandão was awarded a Scott Kloeck-Jenson International Pre-Dissertation Travel Grant for her research in Brazil this summer.
APRIL 2018
Holly Gibbs awarded a research fellowship from the Office of Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) for her sabbatical research project in New Zealand "'Greening' the pastures: Can New Zealand’s experience with agricultural intensification guide Brazil’s pathway?"
JANUARY 2018
Holly Gibbs and Lisa Naughton co-authored a new paper in Nature Climate Change - "The role of supply of supply-chain initiatives in reducing deforestation”. Holly Gibbs and Eric Lambin conceived and chaired the workshop that led to this paper. Check out the press release and read the article here.
DECEMBER 2017
Dr. Petterson Vale publishes op-ed on “Poverty, the missing link of zero deforestation.” Read the article here.
DECEMBER 18, 2017
Congratulations to the newly minted, Dr. Tyler Lark on his Ph.D.!! We are thrilled to announce that Tyler will stay on as a staff Researcher!!
DECEMBER 11, 2017
New PNAS paper co-authored by Holly Gibbs tracks RSPO outcomes for forests. Check out the press release and read the article here.
NOVEMBER 2017
Dr. Lisa Rausch’s paper selected for the cover of Land! Read the paper here.
NOVEMBER 2017
GLUE researcher Seth Spawn presents new research at the 2017 America's Grassland Conference. Read the summary of the preliminary results here and see map of results here.
OCTOBER 2017
Press release. New analysis by GLUE researchers shows that Brazil’s land registration program helps to slow deforestation published was in Conservation Letters. Read it here
OCTOBER 25, 2017
Dr. Lisa Rausch was quoted in the news about her groundbreaking work in the Cerrado! Read the article here
OCTOBER 2017
Holly Gibbs was selected as the 2017 winner of the College of Letters and Sciences “Deans Award for Distinguished Faculty Achievement”, named for Phil Certain and Dean Gary Sander.
OCTOBER 2017
GLUE hosts a workshop on “The New Frontiers for Brazil’s Zero-Deforestation Agreements"
OCTOBER 2017
GLUE hosts workshop on “Quantifying the impact of the Renewable Fuel Standard on America’s Water and Land Resources"
SEPTEMBER 2017
GLUE hosts Dr. Carlos Souza, senior scientist at Imazon and CEO of Terras.
SEPTEMBER 2017
GLUE welcomes Heron Martins, scientist at Imazon, as a visiting fellow for the fall semester!
SEPTEMBER 2017
Welcome to new graduate students Seth Spawn and Clare Sullivan!
SEPTEMBER 2017
GLUE welcomes Beichen Tain as a GIS analyst and Cartographer!
AUGUST 2017
Rudy Omri, GLUE alum, hired as GIS manager for the Roundtable for Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO) in Malaysia!
JULY 2017
GLUE researcher and collaborators from Imazon released a report that estimates the potential purchase areas of 157 slaughterhouses located in the Brazilian Amazon and the impact they have on deforestation. For more details view the report here.
JULY 2017
Holly Gibbs was interviewed by Reuters about cattle laundering in the Brazilian Amazon, click here to read the article.
JUNE 2017
GLUE welcomes Seth Spawn as a PhD student and summer researcher! Seth will lead development of a new global carbon database this summer as well as refine estimate of carbon emissions from US land use change. In the fall, he will continue to pioneer ways to improve agricultural sustainability in the U.S. and beyond!
MAY 2017
GLUE hosted Javier Godar and Toby Gardner from Stockholm Environment Institute (TRASE), as well as Arnaldo Carneiro Filho from the National Research Institute of the Amazon
MAY 2017
Gibbs and Lark awarded $544,500 ($260,000 direct to GLUE) from the National Wildlife Federation to evaluate the impacts of the Renewable Fuel Standard on America’s land and water resources. We have an exceptional team of interdisciplinary scholars including biophysical modelers, economists, remote sensing scientists, and land change scientists. Co-PIs: Chris Kuckarik (UW), Eric Booth (UW), Aaron Smith (UC-Davis), Nathan Hendricks (KSU) and Jesslynn Brown (USGS).
MARCH 2017
Professor Alex Pfaff from Duke University visited GLUE and gave a Weston lecture on "Sustainability Through Policies that Integrate Environment and Development"
MARCH 2017
Prof Raoni Rajao from University of Minas Gerais visited GLUE and presented his work on "Brazil’s Market for Trading Forest Certificates” as well as an Yi Fu Tuan lecture on "Fighting for the future: competing land-use models in the history of Amazônia"
FEBRUARY 2017
Gibbs and Lark awarded new grants from the National Wildlife Federation to improve estimates of carbon emissions from U.S. land use change and to create a new global biomass and soil carbon database. These funds will be used to support a new graduate student and post-doc.
FEBRUARY 2017
Tyler Lark, a Nelson Ph.D. candidate, recently received the Innovation in Teaching TA Award!! You can read more about this prestigious award and see pictures from the ceremony here.
JANUARY 2017
GLUE welcomes Stephanie Herbst as a M.S. student! In partnership with the USGS, Steph will improve our understanding coupled changes in irrigation and agricultural land across the U.S., and work to link her results with policy actions and potential supply chain interventions by the private sector.
NOVEMBER 2016
GLUE member Tyler Lark quoted in the Washington Post on the impacts of recent grassland conversion
OCTOBER 2016
Holly Gibbs’ 2008 publication was selected as one of 10 milestone papers to commemorate ERL's 10th anniversary, 'Best of the decade'. You can read the paper here.
SEPTEMBER 2016
GLUE hosts intensive workshop on supply chain interventions in the Amazon, Cerrado, and Chaco with colleagues from WWF-Brazil, TNC-Brazil, and NWF.
SEPTEMBER 2016
Holly Gibbs joins the Editorial Board for the Journal Land.
SEPTEMBER 2016
GLUE welcomes Amintas Brandao! Amintas was a researcher with Imazon for more than 10 years, and now joins UW as a PhD student where he is leading research on deforestation and cattle production in the Brazilian Amazon.
AUGUST 2016
Lisa Rausch gives invited talk, "Zero-deforestation? Results of efforts to reduce deforestation in the Brazilian agriculture sector", to the Department of Engineering at the Federal University of Minas Gerais (UFMG), Brazil.
AUGUST 2016
Introducing the Tropical Ecosystem Research Collaborative (TERC)! Founded by Profs. Gibbs, Alix-Garcia, Naughton, and Marin-Spiotta. TERC aims to solidify collaborations on tropical land use change across campus through regular social and research events.
AUGUST 2016
JULY 2016
Congratulations to Aline Carrara who successfully defended her M.S. thesis on “A Characterization of the Cattle Sector in Alta Floresta Micro Region, Mato Grosso, Brazil” Yahoo!
JULY 2016
Tyler Lark was awarded the “Best Oral Presentation” student award at the North American Congress for Conservation Biology (NACCB) meeting! Tyler presented his dissertation research: Mapping grassland and cropland conversions across the United States.
MAY 25, 2016
Jake Munger and Ian Schelly attended the workshop "What is a 'Good Enough' Forest Monitoring System" presented by the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis and the National Wildlife Federation in Bonn, Germany
MAY 2016
Congratulations to Jessica L’Roe who successfully defended her Ph.D. dissertation on "Land investment and land access trends among smallholders near tropical forests: Implications for conservation and development”! Yahoo!
MAY 2016
Congratulations to Ticiana Amaral who successfully defended her M.S. thesis on "The evolving role of the Federal Prosecutor on changing environmental governance for cattle in the Brazilian Amazon”! Yahoo!
MAY 2016
Dr. Petterson Molina Vale joins GLUE as a Post-doctoral Research Associate! Petterson will lead research on the outcomes of public and private governance across the Brazilian Amazon. Welcome Petterson!!
MAY 4-5, 2016
Lisa Rausch attended a "Collaboration for Forests and Agriculture Planning" meeting in São Paulo, Brazil.
MAY 2016
Holly Gibbs was interviewed about the renewal of the Soy Moratorium, check it out here
MAY 2016
Holly Gibbs and Tyler Lark are part of the UW-Madison Receipt Reduction Team which has been selected to receive the 2016 Administrative Improvement Award for its work in helping reduce the amount of wasted receipt paper form all Dining and Culinary Services facilities and most Wisconsin Union restaurants! Read more here
APRIL 2016
Holly Gibbs co-organized workshop on “Improving Conservation Outcomes From Supply-Chain Interventions” with Prof. Eric Lambin at the Moore Foundation. Both Holly and Lisa Rausch presented recent results on deforestation outcomes from public and private governance aiming to reduce deforestation in the Amazon.
APRIL 28-29, 2016
Lisa Rausch attended a meeting on "Developing a Common Methodology for Landscape Conservation in Latin America" in Bogotá, Colombia.
FEBRUARY 2016
Check out the website co-created by GLUE and the National Wildlife Federation: Zero Deforestation Cattle
FEBRUARY 16, 2016
Lisa Rausch presented for the Land Tenure Center's Spring Lecture Series. "Property arrangements and soy governance in the Brazilian state of Mato Grosso: Implications for deforestation-free production". She discussed her novel field-based observations, shedding light on increases in soy-cattle integration, use of rental properties, and multiple property ownership in the Brazilian Amazon. Her research highlights how these new, more complex property arrangements may challenge our current approaches to private-sector governance, such as the Soy Moratorium.
JANUARY 15, 2016
Holly Gibbs received the Chancellor’s Distinguished Teaching Award. The Chancellor’s Distinguished Teaching Award is given annually to six outstanding teachers at the UW-Madison. Prof. Gibbs teaches Geog/EnvSt 309: People, Land and Food, the Environmental Studies Capstone, and an annual graduate seminar on interdisciplinary topics around land change science. Congratulations, Holly!
DECEMBER 8, 2015
Gibbs lab received a $1.7 M NORAD Grant. The grant entitled “The Zero-Deforestation Revolution: Breaking the link Between Commodity Agriculture and Forest Loss”, is in collaboration with the National Wildlife Federation and Climate Advisors that provides ~$8,500,000 total funding with ~$1,700,000 to the Gibbs Lab. This grant will further efforts to better understand the outcomes from supply chain interventions aiming to reduce deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon and Cerrado biomes, as well as across Latin America.
NOVEMBER 24, 2015
Gibbs lab received a $2.1M Moore Foundation Grant for their proposal “Strengthening Zero-Deforestation Commitments for Beef and Soy in the Brazilian Amazon and Cerrado”
NOVEMBER 2015
The Gibbs Lab has openings for one post-doctoral scientist and two graduate students to join a larger project assessing the response to supply chain governance efforts in the Brazilian Amazon and Cerrado biomes (e.g., Soy Moratorium and Zero-Deforestation Cattle Agreements).
SEPTEMBER 29 - OCTOBER 1, 2015
Tyler Lark gave the key note presentation at the "America’s Grasslands: Partnerships for Grassland Conservation" conference co-hosted by the National Wildlife Federation, Colorado State University, and Rocky Mountain Bird Observatory in Ft. Collins, Colorado.
JUNE 1, 2015
Rita Pereira attended the "Three years of the Forest Code and One year of National CAR: improvements and challenges in the Amazon" seminar hosted by Observatorio do Codigo Florestal and organized by IPAM, CI and Imazon in Belem, Brazil.
MAY 19-20, 2015
Lisa Rausch attended the annual meeting of the Roundtable on Responsible Soy (RTRS) in Brussels, Belgium.
APRIL 21-25, 2015
Members of the GLUE lab (Prof. Holly Gibbs, Meghan Salmon, Tyler Lark, Lisa Rausch, Ticiana Amaral, Aline Carrara, Jess L'Roe, and Rita Pereira) presented their research to the annual meeting of the Association of American Geographers in Chicago, IL.
APRIL 17-18, 2015
Prof. Holly Gibbs and Dr. Lisa Rausch both presented to the 1st Annual International Symposium on Sustainable Development in Brazil: Brazil's Model of Low Carbon Sustainable Development.
MARCH 26, 2015
Rita Pereira attended the Agrotools workshop Challenges and trends of sustainable agribusiness in the Amazon in Belem, Brazil.
FEBRUARY 2015
Lisa Rausch gave an invited lecture on reducing deforestation in Brazil's soy and cattle sectors to Luther College in Decorah, Iowa.
MAY 21-24, 2014
Lisa Rausch presented on the topic of harmonizing agricultural growth and deforestation reduction in Brazil at the annual meeting of the Latin American Studies Association in Chicago, IL.
OCTOBER 22, 2013
Prof. Gibbs was interviewed by the BBC for their "Shared Planet" special. Listen to podcast here
JULY 24-26, 2013
GLUE co-hosts workshop focussed on synergies between REDD+ and zero-deforestation supply chains here in Madison.
JUNE 1, 2013
GLUE welcomes new Post-Doctoral Scientist Dr. Lisa Rausch! Lisa will help lead analysis of soy production and land use change in the Brazilian Amazon.
MARCH 26, 2013
Prof Gibbs interviewed about changing drivers of deforestation for "In Common" magazine. Click here to read text
MARCH 21, 2013
Prof. Gibbs has a Post-Doc Position available in the GLUE lab as part of a new grant from Norway's Climate and Forest Initiative focused on deforestation-free agricultural commodity supply chains and links to REDD+. Link to posting here.
MARCH 5, 2013
Gibbs invited to join the Brazilian and Global Roundtables for Sustainable Beef (GTPS-GRSB) Forest Working Group and serve as a science advisor. Gibbs presented recent GLUE research results to team of stakeholders.
FEBRUARY 1, 2013
GLUE officially joins Global Roundtable for Sustainable Beef (GRSB) along with key industry and NGOS stakeholders GSRB.
JANUARY 9, 2013
Gibbs, along with co-investigators, was awarded $3.4 million from Norway's NORAD Climate and Forest Initiative to continue and expand our work on tropical land use change and agricultural supply chains.
JANUARY 7, 2013
GLUE welcomes new Post-Doctoral Scientist Dr. Ritamaria Pereira! Rita will help lead analysis of cattle production in the Brazilian Amazon.
DECEMBER 1, 2012
Congrats to Tyler Lark for his recent appointment to the Office of Sustainability's Advisory Board!
NOVEMBER 28, 2012
Prof Gibbs interviewed and quoted in Rueters news article "Amazon forest destruction slowing - Brazil". Click here to read article.
NOVEMBER 2, 2012
GLUE announces a new post-doctoral researcher opportunity to work on cattle and soy land-use issues in the Brazilian Amazon. More information available here (link to PDF announcement).
OCTOBER 1, 2012
Prof Gibbs presents "Tools for supporting zero-deforestation voluntary agreements in the Brazilian Amazon" at the Global Roundtable for Sustainable Beef Executive Committee meeting in Venus, Florida.
SEPTEMBER 1, 2012
GLUE hires new post-doc, Meghan Salmon, who will lead development of the Global Land Conversion Database (GLCD) .
JULY 25, 2012
Professor Gibbs spoke about land use and bioenergy on the Wisconsin Public Radio Larry Meiller talk show. Listen to a podcast here: Podcast Link
JUNE 18-19, 2012
GLUE hosted visiting collaborator Marcos Adami from INPE to discuss our joint project to monitor the outcomes from the Soy Moratorium agreement in the Brazilian Amazon. Link to INPE
JUNE 1, 2012
The Gibbs Land Use and Environment Group has partnered with Mongabay.com to help bring more science news to the public and give students experience with science writing. Mongabay is a science news website focusing on environmental issues, particularly in the tropics, and has over 1 million visitors each month. You can find articles written by GLUE members and affiliates here
APRIL 25, 2012
Tyler Lark was selected as the 2012-2013 Roy F. Weston Graduate Fellow in Sustainability Studies! This 9-month academic fellowship is the top award at SAGE, and is only given to our most outstanding students. Tyler's outstanding scholarship, leadership, and dedication to issues of environmental sustainability motivated his selection by the SAGE Investigator's Council for this prestigious award. Congratulations, Tyler!
DECEMBER 10, 2011
Professor Gibbs was awarded $330,000 from the California Air Resources Board (CARB) to "Map Current and Potential Land Conversion Pathways". A post-doctoral and graduate student position will be announced for Fall 2012.

Featured Media Coverage

More Media Coverage »