Pan Boreal remaining global rainforestsIs dedicated to conserving biodiversity -- the species, ecosystems and ecological processes that make up the web of life -- over the long term and to increasing the understanding of the integral relationship between the health of the biosphere and human well-being. Work is supported in a select number of tropical biogeographic zones, chosen for their richness of species diversity, endemism, limited institutional capacity, and level of threat. MacArthur also supports research in investigating trade-offs that exist between human well-being and biodiversity conservation goals and exploring approaches to conservation that address the impacts of climate change.
In 2001 Two environmental activists were among the 23 people honored with MacArthur "genius awards" yesterday. One of the $500,000 fellowships, which are awarded annually to outstanding individuals by the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, was pilot and conservationist Sandra Lanham. Lanham flies researchers to remote areas of the Southwest and Mexico to study endangered species. She is a self-taught naturalist, as is the other environmental MacArthur recipient, Cynthia Moss. The director of Kenya's Amboseli Elephant Research Project, Moss is one of the world's leading experts on elephants and author of Portraits in the Wild, Elephant Memories, and other books.
In February 2007 Jonathan Fanton, director of the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, who announced during his acceptance speech his organization's new plans to commit $5 million over the next three years to climate research.
