Catherine Potvin is a tropical forest ecologist and professor at McGill University in the Department of Biology. Her scientific research studies climate change, carbon cycling, and biodiversity in tropical rainforests with an additional focus on community empowerment and climate change policy. She was the first woman to receive the Miroslaw Romanowski Medal from the Royal Society of Canada, in recognition of her "significant contributions to the resolution of scientific aspects of environmental problems". In addition to her scientific research, she works on sustainable development with indigenous communities in Panama and on policy as a former UN climate change negotiator for Panama and leads climate change initiatives in Canada.
Early life and education
As the granddaughter of farmers, Catherine Potvin grew up with an appreciation for nature. Her motivation to pursue biology stemmed from her fascination and desire to better understand the biodiversity of the Earth and a concern for its degradation. Potvin earned a B.S. (1981) and M.S. (1982) from the University of Montreal in Biology, and later earned her Ph.D. in Botany from Duke University (1985). After her Ph.D., Potvin returned to the University of Montreal for her postdoctoral studies in biostatistics.
Research and career
Scientific contributions
Potvin has published over 100 scientific journal articles and multiple book chapters. In addition to her professorship at McGill University, she is a Trottier Fellow from the Trottier Institute for Science and Public Policy at McGill and holds a Canada Research Chair in Climate Change Mitigation and Tropical Forest. Potvin's research focuses on climate change and carbon cycling in the tropics with an interdisciplinary lens of socioeconomic and policy aspects of land use changes. The unifying theme of her work and laboratory is "Science for empowerment", which has provided an integrative framework for her work with diverse stakeholders including scientists, citizens, indigenous communities, and governments. Her work has received the Miroslaw Romanowski Medal from the Royal Society of Canada in recognition of her scientific work as "significant contributions to the resolution of scientific aspects of environmental problems".
Initiatives in Panama
Potvin has been working in the rainforests and with indigenous communities of Panama since 1993. She is an Associate Scientist at the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute in Panama. In the mid-1990s, Potvin laid the foundation for a long and deep partnership with the Ipeti-Embera indigenous community in the Bayano region of eastern Panama. She has paved the way for more collaborative scientist-indigenous community partnerships to promote land conservation, resilient livelihoods, and preservation of cultural traditions. Through co-developing methods for sustainable forest management and carbon storage measurement with the community, her work has helped the Ipeti-Embera continue their traditional house-building using palm, traditional instrument making, and cultural body painting. As a result of this collaborative partnership and forest carbon studies, her work has directly slowed the rate of deforestation in the Ipeti community, with about half of their territory remaining forested in contrast to a neighboring Embera community that has lost its forest. Her work has encouraged Embera leaders to continue forest carbon measuring campaigns with support from the Environmental Defense Fund and the World Bank. In addition to her capacity building work with indigenous communities, she is also a negotiator of the Reduction of Emissions from Deforestation and forest Degradation (REDD+) initiative on behalf of Panama in the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (2005-2009). Her environmental protection work in Panama has been recognized as exemplary contributions by the Ministry of the Environment of Panama.