Eduardo S. Bongiolo
Masters’ student in School for Forest Resources & Conservation; B.S. at Universidade do Extremo Sul Catarinense (UNESC)
Since his childhood, Eduardo was involved in promoting conservation of the Amazon Rainforest while helping his family with a lodge located in Rondônia – Brazil that received scientists from all over the world to study the Amazon ecosystem. He has also been part of the family foundation FAUTRON – Rondônia Fauna and Flora Foundation. He has a bachelor’s degree in environmental engineering and in his Master’ thesis is looking into to what extend could small landowner increase natural Brazil nut production by abandoning agricultural plots to fallow.
Eduardo is funded by Florida Biodiversity Institute and TCD.
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Robinson Botero-Arias
PhD student in the Wildlife Ecology and Conservation Department, University of Florida; B.S. at Universidad de Antioquia, Medellin, Colombia, & M.S. at Instituto Nacional de Pesquisas da Amazônia, Manaus, Brazil,
In 2000, Robin started his work with Amazonian caimans and realized the vulnerability of these animals and relevance for local communities. Since 2007, Robin has been associated with the Mamiraua Institute for Sustainable Development in the Brazilian Amazon, where he had the opportunity to create, implement and monitoring strategies for the conservation the caimans and for other wildlife groups, including Amazon river turtles, aquatic mammals, and fisheries, aquatic recourses with a huge economic and ecological interest in the Amazon. Robin has been adviser the IUCN-SSC Crocodile Specialist Group-CSG, since 2008, in issues of conservation, management and sustainable use of crocodilians, with a special focus of Amazonian caimans. Currently, he is a PhD student and his dissertation is focused on the ecology and conservation strategies of Amazonian caimans, with a focus in Black Caiman (Melanosuchus niger) in Mamirauá reserve, Brazil.
Robin is jointly funded by TCD program, Wildlife Ecology and Conservation Department and Wildlife Conservation Society -WCS.
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Angelica Garcia Villacorta
PhD Student in Interdisciplinary Ecology, School of Natural Resources & Environment; M.S. in Forest Resources & Conservation from University of Florida & B.S. in Biology from Universidad Nacional Agraria La Molina (Lima-Peru).
Angelica is a former Fulbright Scholar. She has experience working with ecological and conservation projects in the Peruvian Amazon. She has also worked as a consultant in environmental impact assessments and as a wildlife supervisor for an agency of the Peruvian Government. Her doctoral dissertation is going to focus on factors that influence the sustainability of palm management in Madre de Dios-Peru. Within her research, her areas of interests are conservation behavior, traditional ecological knowledge, the role of NGOs with indigenous and rural communities, non-timber forest products (NTFPs) and land use management.
Angelica is funded by TCD program, School of Natural Resources (SNRE) & NSF CNH (Coupled Natural & Human Systems) lead by Dr. Stephen Perz.
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Carolina Jordão
PhD student in Interdisciplinary Ecology, School for Natural Resources & Environment; B.S. (Environmental Managements) & M.S. (Environmental Engineering) at University of São Paulo
Carolina is an environmental manager from Brazil and has been working in environmental governance in the Brazilian Amazon for the past 8 years, including work with the NGO Instituto Centro de Vida (ICV). At ICV, she has worked with diverse set of stakeholders in the Amazon frontier of Mato Grosso State in Brazil, focusing on issues of municipal environmental management, social participation, forest governance, leadership training and capacity building and socio-environmental impacts of hydroelectric dams. She has worked with UF’s Amazon Conservation Leadership Institute team as both a student in two specialization courses and to develop similar courses for ICV. For her dissertation research, she is working with the Rede de Capacitação da Amazônia (Recam) network and is particularly interested in exploring issues around funding, collaboration and gender integration in socioenvironmental NGOs the Brazilian Amazon.
Carolina is jointly funded by the TCD program and School for Natural Resources & Environment.
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Pamela Montero-Alvarez
PhD student in Tourism, Recreation & Sport Management; B.S. (Biological Science) from the National University of the Peruvian Amazon (UNAP) & M.S. (High Amazonian Studies) from The Pontifical Catholic University of Peru (PUCP).
Pamela is a Peruvian biologist with experience in protected area and community-based management of natural resources, planning and participatory tools for rural diagnosis. Currently Director of the “La Minga”, a communal association working on rural tourism nearby the Tamshiyacu – Tahuayo Communal Regional Conservation Area, Loreto-Peru. Professional experience as Specialist on Governance for the Regional Office of Loreto for “Peru Bosques” – USAID/Peru Project, and later designated as Specialist on Natural Protected Areas, same project. Previous professional experiences includes Director of Natural Resources of the Municipality of “Datem del Maranon”, Loreto-Peru, Community Management Specialist at the Regional Project for Conservation in Loreto (Maijuna Native Community Proposal and Tamshiyacu Tahuayo Protected Area), also worked in the Maranon river Basin, Specialist on conservation and ecotourism for the National Bureau of Forestry and Wildlife, Ministry of Agriculture. Research interest: social capital, governance, protected area conservation strategies link to Sustainable Development, land use dynamics, and Community-based Tourism.
Pamela is funded by LASPAU, TCD and the Tourism, Recreation & Sports Management Department at UF.
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Manuel Morales M.
Professional Masters’ in Sustainable Development student; BSc (Biology) Universidad del Azuay, Cuenca, Ecuador.
Manuel studied Biology in Cuenca, where he earned his Bachelor’s degree in 2004. For the past twenty years, he has worked in conservation issues, especially amphibian and reptile biodiversity, natural resource management, community management, park management and ethno-zoology. Manuel has worked with several NGOs (national and international) addressing these issues in Ecuador, including Conservation International, Wildlife Conservation Society, Fundación EcoCiencia, Fundación Natura, Fundación Herpetológica Gustavo Orcés and Fundación Otonga. He has worked as a natural history collections manager at the Catholic Pontifical University of Ecuador, the National Museum of Natural History and the Jambatu Research Center for Amphibian Conservation (his most recent job). Manuel also served as wildlife technician in the Esmeraldas Provincial Government where he implemented conservation plans and served as a wildlife specialist (2004). In 2004-2005, Manuel served as Chair of Environmental Affairs in the Water, Sewage, Environmental Sanitation and Telecommunication Public Enterprise of Cuenca, Ecuador, where he worked in environmental law enforcement and in program implementation for water service management, hazardous waste disposal and environmental education. As part of his responsibilities, he directed El Cajas National Park and 12 other reserves, which together protect the watersheds that provide drinking water for the Cuenca district. As part of his work, Manuel has had the opportunity to travel to several parts of the continent, including Colombia, Peru, Panamá and Costa Rica. Ten years ago, he was at the University of Florida for the first time, as a visiting scholar with TCD analyzing data from fishing and hunting monitoring by local people in Yasuní National Park, a project implemented by Wildlife Conservation Society – Ecuador.
Manuel is funded by the TCD Program and the Center for Latin American Studies.
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Marcelo Rocha
MA student in Latin American Studies, UF Center of Latin American Studies; B.A. (International Relations) at Centro Universitario Jorge Amado (UNIJORGE) in Salvador, Brazil.
Marcelo has been working in international development and South-South cooperation for the past 6 years, by coordinating projects in sustainable agriculture development in Bolivia, Ghana, Haiti, Honduras and Mozambique. He was also the focal point for the International Climate Initiative (IKI) at the Brazilian Cooperation Agency (ABC) and supervised the implementation of projects on conservation and sustainable use of the rainforest, and energy efficiency and renewable energies in Brazil. For his thesis research, he is particularly interested in climate finance for forest conservation in the Amazon.
Marcelo is funded by Center for Latin American Studies.
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Martha C. Rosero-Peña
Ph.D. Candidate in Environmental Sociology and Race & Ethnicity, Department of Sociology and Criminology & Law. University of Florida. B.S. at the National University of Colombia (Animal Husbandry); . PostGraduate Certificate (Agroecology and Rural Development); MSc. (Environmental Sciences. Management) at Wageningen University and Research Center, The Netherlands.
Martha has worked with various institutions such as WWF, Tropenbos Colombia, Institute of Ethnobiology-ACT Colombia, CETEC, CIPAV Foundation and the National Learning Service of Colombia for about 15 years. She has worked in environmental management, teaching and advice projects implemented with indigenous peoples and Afro-descendant communities in regions such as the Colombian and Peruvian Amazon, as well as, the Chocó Bio-geographic in Colombia and Ecuador. Martha’s professional experience contributed to create interdisciplinary strategies of training-for-trainers that support processes for vertical public policy transformation. Policy´s emphasis has been to intervene in different ecosystems, as well as, in indigenous and ethnic societies from inappropriate education for development approaches.Currently, the main topics of her research is socio-environmental related to climate change, adaptation policies in tropical regions and livelihood systems, especially of inhabitants of forest and rural areas, and ontological design approach.
Martha is funded by TCD program and the Department of Sociology and Criminology & Law.