Catherine Potvin

Potvin has published over 100 scientific journal articles and multiple book chapters.[9] 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.[10] 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.[1] 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.[10] 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".[4][5]

Potvin has been working in the rainforests and with indigenous communities of Panama since 1993.[7] She is an Associate Scientist at the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute in Panama.[7] 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.[7] 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.[7] 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.[7] Her work has encouraged Embera leaders to continue forest carbon measuring campaigns with support from the Environmental Defense Fund and the World Bank.[7] 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).[6] Her environmental protection work in Panama has been recognized as exemplary contributions by the Ministry of the Environment of Panama.[3][1]

In addition to her research, she is a scientist-activist that has gained experience in national and international climate change and conservation policy. In addition to being a UN climate change negotiator in Panama, she pioneered and leads Sustainable Canada Dialogues, which is a collaborative network of 80+ Canadian scholars mobilizing to craft a national climate action plan.[6] Sustainable Canada Dialogues emphasizes the importance of an energy transition that improves human livelihoods and the environment by opening opportunities for innovation and employment.[6] The scholars come from diverse academic backgrounds, including sociology, business, biology, and engineering, to provide interdisciplinary and evidence-based solutions relevant to all regions of Canada.[6][11][12] Their most recent report was sponsored by the Department of Natural Resources Canada which proposed 10 policy orientations to achieve 100% low-carbon electricity by 2035.[12]