Alvaro Umaña served as the first ever Minister of the Environment in Costa Rica. During his term as Minister, various conservation initiatives that are now standard in Costa Rica were first envisioned. Such initiatives include payment for environmental services, ecotourism certifications, carbon neutrality, and others. Mr. Umaña will be one of the keynote speakers at the upcoming Stanford Woods Institute Symposium, which will mark its 10^th anniversary.

You can catch the symposium via webcast on November 11, at 14:30 PST. Here’s the report by Rob Jordan from Stanford News:

In 2004, Stanford President John Hennessy launched a new interdisciplinary institute for the environment – the Stanford Woods Institute for the Environment.

In the decade since, the Stanford Woods Institute for the Environment has brought together researchers from all seven Stanford schools to pioneer breakthrough environmental solutions in partnership with experts across the academic, public, private, government and nonprofit sectors.

That spirit of interdisciplinary collaboration has spawned a range of bold advances, including sophisticated software tools to guide natural resource management; award-winning designs for sanitation and water purification devices; and innovative techniques for using satellite technology to track increasingly scarce water in underground aquifers.

“At Stanford, there is drive to improve the world and a recognition that together we are more than the sum of our parts,” said Barton “Buzz” Thompson, the Robert E. Paradise Professor in Natural Resources Law at Stanford. Thompson and Jeffrey Koseff, a professor of civil and environmental engineering, have served as the Perry L. McCarty Directors of the institute since its inception.

To commemorate its 10-year anniversary, the Woods Institute will hold a Nov. 11 symposium, titled “Breaking Through to Global Sustainability.” Free and open to the public, it will take place from 2:30 to 5 p.m. on Tuesday in Cemex Auditorium.

The idea is to explore how Stanford faculty, students and their partners beyond campus are overcoming barriers to sustainability through innovation and collaboration across academic disciplines and economic sectors. Stanford School of Earth Sciences Dean Pamela Matson and San Jose Mercury News environmental writer Paul Rogers will moderate the event.

Jerry Yang, co-founder and former CEO of Yahoo, will give opening remarks. Panelists will include Stanford faculty and students working with the Natural Capital Project; Water in the West; the Water, Health and Development program; and INOGO, Woods’ sustainable development program in Costa Rica.

The symposium will also include perspectives from Alvaro Umaña, Costa Rica’s first Minister of Energy and the Environment; Chantalle Clarke-Samuels, director of the Belize Coastal Zone Management Authority and Institute; and former California Secretary of Natural Resources Lester Snow, director of the California Water Foundation.

“We are celebrating not just a milestone, but a culture of innovation,” said Koseff, the William Alden Campbell and Martha Campbell Professor in the School of Engineering. “Finding solutions in transformative, creative ways by crossing boundaries is in the DNA of Stanford and Woods.”

The Stanford Woods Institute for the Environment is a research and policy center that works toward a future in which societies meet people’s needs for water, food, health and other vital services while protecting and nurturing the planet. As the university’s hub of environment and sustainability research, Woods is the go-to place for Stanford faculty, researchers and students to collaborate on environmental research. Their interdisciplinary work crosses sectors and disciplines, advancing solutions to the most critical, complex environmental and sustainability challenges.