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Lovejoy, who coined the term \u201cbiological diversity\u201d \u2014\u202fand was widely considered \u201cthe godfather of biodiversity<\/a>\u201d \u2014 was a member of Conservation International\u2019s Leadership Council. Having held numerous posts in a career that spanned more than a half-century, he was most recently a fellow at the UN Foundation and a professor of environmental science at George Mason University in Virginia. \u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div>\n His loss reverberated throughout the conservation world.\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div>\n \u201cI am terribly saddened to hear about the passing of Tom Lovejoy,\u201d said Conservation International CEO M. Sanjayan. \u201cHe was a giant in conservation, a champion for the Amazon, and above all a kind and generous scientist. Tom was a mentor and a friend to many. We will miss him greatly.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Lovejoy made numerous and profound contributions to environmental science and policy.\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div>\n In 1984, Lovejoy proposed the \u201cdebt-for-nature swap,\u201d in which a portion of a developing country\u2019s foreign debt is forgiven in exchange for commitments to environmental protection and policy measures. Since the first debt-for-nature swap <\/a>between Conservation International and Bolivia in 1987, the idea has become a mainstay of conservation, with billions of dollars in funding being made available for environmental protection. (These swaps took on added significance<\/a> during the COVID-19 pandemic, as many debt-vulnerable countries weathered economic troubles while shifting their funding priorities away from environmental protection.) \u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div>\n But Lovejoy\u2019s legacy went well beyond game-changing conservation tools \u2014 most significantly, he is credited with helping to focus the world\u2019s attention on perhaps its most important biome and on the links between climate change and the loss of biodiversity.\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div>\n “It’s time for biodiversity to come out of the shadows of the big environmental problems,” Lovejoy said last year<\/a>. “It needs to come into its own for a period of remarkable achievement.”\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div>\n His prolific research and writings reflected this view. A 2019 book<\/a> that he co-edited with Conservation International scientist Lee Hannah, \u201cBiodiversity and Climate Change: Transforming the Biosphere\u201d \u2014 a sequel to a seminal work released in 2005 by the same authors \u2014 is being used as a teaching text in universities, providing an invaluable foundation for the next generation of scientists and decision-makers.\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div>\n The next generation that will carry on his legacy remembered Lovejoy not only for his immense scientific contributions but for his good-natured generosity. \u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div>\n \u201cTom was a giant, in all of the best ways,\u201d said Rachel Golden Kroner, an environmental governance fellow at Conservation International who earned a Ph.D. at George Mason University while studying under Lovejoy. \u201cNot only was he a pioneer of conservation science, but was also a generous connector and keen diplomat. His work will continue to inspire all of us working for our planet.\u201d \u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Lovejoy\u2019s optimism \u2014 and his view of the Earth as a living entity unto itself \u2014\u202fsuffused his work.\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div>\n \u201cWe still have time to act on the recognition that our planet is an intricately linked biological and physical system that holds yet-to-be-understood capacity to heal and clean itself,\u201d he wrote with Hannah in 2018. \u201cWe still have tools and opportunities to effectively manage the living planet and its biodiversity for the benefit of humanity and all life on Earth.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n \u201cFinding our way through the climate crisis also requires that we remember how our home planet works \u2014 as a linked biological and physical system with a beating, photosynthesizing, rainmaking heart of wild woods.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Bruno Vander Velde is the senior communications director at Conservation International.\u00a0<\/em>Want to read more stories like this?\u00a0Sign up for email updates.<\/a>\u00a0Donate to Conservation International.<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n