History

It all started in Oxford, with 29 international experts in tropical forests locked inside a room thinking:  how to investigate ‘nature’s last biotic frontier’ and most urgently, how to help stop its destruction. They concluded that by working together, canopy researchers would be able to leverage more funding for a major collaborative natural science project to investigate tropical forests. Its results should be communicated far and wide to those with the power to halt deforestation.  The Global Canopy Programme would be the catalyst of action.

Ten years later, the GCP has developed and supported projects in all tropical corners of the Earth; has chased ambitious canopy dreams such as ‘ Whole Forests Observatories’ and has translated the value of forests services and life to policy-makers and investors in developed and developing countries.  Its success can be measured by its increasing network of partners and friends, the loyalty and generosity of its donors, and the popularity of its products.    

With help from the UK’s Darwin Initiative and the FCO Global Opportunities Fund, the GCP has also developed canopy training programmes in Brazil, Malaysia and Britain, helping to build a platform for new scientific leadership in forest science.

The Science Alliance

		Ashoka Trust for Research in Ecology and the Environment, India				Large-Scale Biosphere-Atmosphere  Experiment, Brazil
		Swiss Canopy Crane Project, Basel University, Switzerland				Madagascan Institute for the Conservation of Tropical Environments, Madagascar
		Canopy Operation Permanent Acess System, France				Natural Sciences Division, New College, Florida, USA
		Canopy Consortium, Operation Canopee, France				Oxford University, Centre for the Environment, UK
		Centre for Ecology & Hydrology, UK				Melbourne University, Australia
		Department of Zoology, University of Oxford, UK				Pro-Natura France
		Edinburgh University, UK				Rainforest Academy, University of Putra, Malaysia
		Federal University of Ouro Preto, Brazil				Roehampton University, UK
		Forest Research Institute of Ghana, Ghana				Royal Society, South East Asian Research Programme, UK
		Global Canopy Programme				Smithsonian Tropical Resarch Institute, Panama
		Greenheart Conservation Company, Canada				Stichting Het Kronendak, Independent Canopy Foundation
		Insutitute for Humanity and Nature, Japan				Wageningen, University, The Netherlands
		Griffith University, Australia				The Natural History Museum, UK
		Institute for the Conservation of Tropical Environments, USA				United Nations Environment Programme
		International Canopy Network, USA				University of Passau, Germany
		Institute of Botany and the Leipzig Canopy Crane Project, Germany				University Estadual de Santa Cruz, Brazil
		Institute of Entomology, Czech Academy of Sciences				Wind River Canopy Crane Research Facility, USA
		Institute for Research in the Amazon, Brazil				Wildlife Conservation Society, USA
		Institute for Tropical BIology and Conservation, University Malaysia, Sabah, Malaysia				Xishuangbanna Tropical Botanical Garden, Chinese Academy of Sciences, China
		James Cook University, Australian Canopy Crane, Australia