{"id":10067,"date":"2021-02-06T11:00:00","date_gmt":"2021-02-06T05:30:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/idronline.org\/?p=10067"},"modified":"2025-11-05T20:07:51","modified_gmt":"2025-11-05T14:37:51","slug":"nature-wellbeing-social-change-michael-jenkins-carlos-souza-interview","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/idronline.org\/kn-in\/nature-wellbeing-social-change-michael-jenkins-carlos-souza-interview\/","title":{"rendered":"Nature, well-being, and social change"},"content":{"rendered":"

In 2010, Michael Jenkins<\/a> and Carlos Souza<\/a> each earned Skoll Awards<\/a> for their innovative work to preserve forests and promote both conservation and sustainable development in South America and around the world. Jenkins, Founder of Forest Trends<\/a>, a Washington, DC-based international non-profit organization that pioneered the concept of financial incentives for the “ecosystem services”, and Souza, Senior Researcher at Imazon<\/a> (Amazon Institute of People and the Environment), a leading Belém, Brazil-based research institution focused on spatial analysis and remote sensing for mapping and monitoring forest changes, recently reconnected as participants in The Wellbeing Project<\/a>. <\/p>

We recently chatted with them about the interconnections between their environmental work and ideas of wellbeing, their own paths to this work, and how their organizational leadership reflects the lessons of their personal inner wellbeing process.<\/p>

This is an excerpt from the article, <\/em>Nature, Wellbeing, and Social Change: A Conversation with Carlos Souza and Michael Jenkins<\/a><\/strong> by Zach Slobig.<\/em><\/p>

\"What<\/a><\/div>

This article is a part of a special series on the connection between inner well-being and social change, in partnership with The Wellbeing Project<\/a>, Stanford Social Innovation Review<\/a>, Schwab Foundation<\/a> at the World Economic Forum<\/a>, and Skoll Foundation<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n

\"donate<\/a><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In 2010, Michael Jenkins and Carlos Souza each earned Skoll Awards for their innovative work to preserve forests and promote both conservation and sustainable development in South America and around the world. Jenkins, Founder of Forest Trends,…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":10079,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[8,582,35],"tags":[496],"series":[],"meta-filter":[],"schema-filter":[743],"no-display":[],"class_list":["post-10067","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-environment","category-instagram","category-centred-self-the-wellbeing-series","tag-well-being","contributor-skoll-foundation","states-india","schema-filter-article"],"yoast_head":"\nTalking about nature, well-being, and social change | IDR<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Carlos Souza and Michael Jenkins discuss the interconnections between their environmental work, nature, and ideas of well-being.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/idronline.org\/nature-wellbeing-social-change-michael-jenkins-carlos-souza-interview\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"kn_IN\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Nature, well-being, and social change\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Carlos Souza and Michael Jenkins discuss the interconnections between their environmental work, nature, and ideas of well-being.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/idronline.org\/nature-wellbeing-social-change-michael-jenkins-carlos-souza-interview\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"India Development Review\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2021-02-06T05:30:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2025-11-05T14:37:51+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/idronline.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/A-picture-of-a-forest-and-a-river_Jenkins-and-Souza.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"764\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"509\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Devanshi Vaid\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO Premium plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Talking about nature, well-being, and social change | IDR","description":"Carlos Souza and Michael Jenkins discuss the interconnections between their environmental work, nature, and ideas of well-being.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/idronline.org\/nature-wellbeing-social-change-michael-jenkins-carlos-souza-interview\/","og_locale":"kn_IN","og_type":"article","og_title":"Nature, well-being, and social change","og_description":"Carlos Souza and Michael Jenkins discuss the interconnections between their environmental work, nature, and ideas of well-being.","og_url":"https:\/\/idronline.org\/nature-wellbeing-social-change-michael-jenkins-carlos-souza-interview\/","og_site_name":"India Development Review","article_published_time":"2021-02-06T05:30:00+00:00","article_modified_time":"2025-11-05T14:37:51+00:00","og_image":[{"width":764,"height":509,"url":"https:\/\/idronline.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/A-picture-of-a-forest-and-a-river_Jenkins-and-Souza.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Devanshi Vaid","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/idronline.org\/nature-wellbeing-social-change-michael-jenkins-carlos-souza-interview\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/idronline.org\/nature-wellbeing-social-change-michael-jenkins-carlos-souza-interview\/"},"author":{"name":"Devanshi Vaid","@id":"https:\/\/idronline.org\/#\/schema\/person\/5440619b9bec1184c5774c076c0ca71c"},"headline":"Nature, well-being, and social change","datePublished":"2021-02-06T05:30:00+00:00","dateModified":"2025-11-05T14:37:51+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/idronline.org\/nature-wellbeing-social-change-michael-jenkins-carlos-souza-interview\/"},"wordCount":213,"commentCount":0,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/idronline.org\/#organization"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/idronline.org\/nature-wellbeing-social-change-michael-jenkins-carlos-souza-interview\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/idronline.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/A-picture-of-a-forest-and-a-river_Jenkins-and-Souza.jpg","keywords":["well-being"],"articleSection":["Environment","Instagram","The Well-being Series"],"inLanguage":"kn-IN","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/idronline.org\/nature-wellbeing-social-change-michael-jenkins-carlos-souza-interview\/#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/idronline.org\/nature-wellbeing-social-change-michael-jenkins-carlos-souza-interview\/","url":"https:\/\/idronline.org\/nature-wellbeing-social-change-michael-jenkins-carlos-souza-interview\/","name":"Talking about nature, well-being, and social change | IDR","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/idronline.org\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/idronline.org\/nature-wellbeing-social-change-michael-jenkins-carlos-souza-interview\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/idronline.org\/nature-wellbeing-social-change-michael-jenkins-carlos-souza-interview\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/idronline.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/A-picture-of-a-forest-and-a-river_Jenkins-and-Souza.jpg","datePublished":"2021-02-06T05:30:00+00:00","dateModified":"2025-11-05T14:37:51+00:00","description":"Carlos Souza and Michael Jenkins discuss the interconnections between their environmental work, nature, and ideas of well-being.","inLanguage":"kn-IN","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/idronline.org\/nature-wellbeing-social-change-michael-jenkins-carlos-souza-interview\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"kn-IN","@id":"https:\/\/idronline.org\/nature-wellbeing-social-change-michael-jenkins-carlos-souza-interview\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/idronline.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/A-picture-of-a-forest-and-a-river_Jenkins-and-Souza.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/idronline.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/A-picture-of-a-forest-and-a-river_Jenkins-and-Souza.jpg","width":764,"height":509,"caption":"nature and wellbeing - A picture of a forest and a river"},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/idronline.org\/#website","url":"https:\/\/idronline.org\/","name":"India Development Review","description":"India's first and largest online journal for leaders in the development community","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/idronline.org\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/idronline.org\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"kn-IN"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/idronline.org\/#organization","name":"India Development Review","url":"https:\/\/idronline.org\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"kn-IN","@id":"https:\/\/idronline.org\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/idronline.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/idr-logo-without-tagline-sm.webp","contentUrl":"https:\/\/idronline.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/idr-logo-without-tagline-sm.webp","width":1,"height":1,"caption":"India Development Review"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/idronline.org\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"}},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/idronline.org\/#\/schema\/person\/5440619b9bec1184c5774c076c0ca71c","name":"Devanshi Vaid","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"kn-IN","@id":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/2ff7c808d3539c16c67949df0296e034b2baeb599fa173f683398d23fe4e3690?s=96&d=mm&r=g","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/2ff7c808d3539c16c67949df0296e034b2baeb599fa173f683398d23fe4e3690?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/2ff7c808d3539c16c67949df0296e034b2baeb599fa173f683398d23fe4e3690?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Devanshi Vaid"},"url":"https:\/\/idronline.org\/kn-in\/author\/dvaid\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/idronline.org\/kn-in\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10067","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/idronline.org\/kn-in\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/idronline.org\/kn-in\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/idronline.org\/kn-in\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/idronline.org\/kn-in\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10067"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/idronline.org\/kn-in\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10067\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10097,"href":"https:\/\/idronline.org\/kn-in\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10067\/revisions\/10097"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/idronline.org\/kn-in\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/10079"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/idronline.org\/kn-in\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10067"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/idronline.org\/kn-in\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10067"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/idronline.org\/kn-in\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10067"},{"taxonomy":"series","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/idronline.org\/kn-in\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/series?post=10067"},{"taxonomy":"meta-filter","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/idronline.org\/kn-in\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/meta-filter?post=10067"},{"taxonomy":"schema-filter","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/idronline.org\/kn-in\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/schema-filter?post=10067"},{"taxonomy":"no-display","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/idronline.org\/kn-in\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/no-display?post=10067"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}