Invited
Speakers
Keynote Talk: Presentation of the Science Panel for the Amazon
Andrea C. Encalada, Ph.D.
Director, BIOSFERA Research Institute, Universidad San Francisco, Ecuador
Andrea is a freshwater ecologist, professor and director of the BIOSFERA Research Institute of Universidad San Francisco de Quito and she is also an Adjunct Professor of University of North Carolina Chapel Hill. She got her PhD from Cornell University and since then she has been working on stream and river research in tropical and temperate ecosystems. During the last 10 years she has focused her research on river structure and function along elevation gradients in Andean-Amazon watersheds. She is particularly interested in climate change and other anthropogenic changes and how these impacts might alter populations, communities, and ecosystem process in tropical rivers. Currently, she is co-Charing the Science Panel for the Amazon (SPA) together with Professor Carlos Nobre in a regional initiative to explore solutions for the Amazon basin.
Panel: The ASL and its contribution to the reduction of zoonotic diseases.
Adriana Moreira
Senior Environmental Specialist, WB
Moderator
Adriana leads a series of large projects in Latin America, focusing on Brazil, Colombia and Mexico and is the coordinator of Amazon Sustainable Landscapes Program. Biologist with a PhD in Ecology from the University of Harvard (USA), Adriana is an expert in environment and sustainable development, with over 20-year experience in natural resources management, rural development and climate change. Author and co-author of four books and dozens of scientific publications, she was a founder and the first president of the Institute for Amazonian Research (IPAM) and founder and board member of the Brazilian Women Leaders Network for Sustainability, which involves leaders from private sector, government and civil society. She has received the Chico Mendes Florestania Prize and the Pirelli International Award for her work on conservation and sustainable development of the Brazilian Amazon.
Mariana Vale
Assistant Professor, Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
Dr. Mariana Vale is Assistant Professor at the Ecology Department of the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. She coordinates the biodiversity branch of the Brazilian Research Network on Global Climate Change (Rede CLIMA), and is a member of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). Her research focuses on global change and biodiversity conservation in the Tropics.
Marcia Chame
Oswaldo Cruz Foundation
Brazil
Biologist, Doctor in Zoology, Senior Researcher at Fundação Oswaldo Cruz, Ministry of Health, Brazil. Coordinator of the Institutional Platform for Biodiversity and Wild Health. Marcia dedicates herself to studying the relationship between human health and wild animals, since prehistory, and the emergence of zoonoses based on socio-environmental changes and future perspectives. He coordinates the The Information System on Wildlife Health (SISS-Geo) which, with the participation of communities and society, generates alerts and prediction models for zoonoses in Brazil. Winning project for the National Biodiversity and SDGs Award in Brazil.
Mark Zimsky
Senior Biodiversity Specilaist
Global Environment Facility (GEF)
Mark Zimsky has 30 years’ experience in more than 40 countries developing national biodiversity strategies, designing biodiversity conservation projects for national, regional and global-level execution, and implementing sustainable agriculture, natural resources management, and conservation projects at the national and community level. He has worked for a wide variety of institutions including UNDP, UNEP, the US Peace Corps, and NGOs such as Ecology Action of the Mid-peninsula, and ACDI-VOCA. Prior to coming to the GEF in 2004, Mark served as the Senior Programme Officer for Biodiversity at UNEP/GEF. At the GEF Mark serves as the Biodiversity Focal Area Coordinator. In addition, he is the Regional Coordinator for Latin America.
Panel: Sustainable value chains for the recovery of the Amazon - Ideas for the ASL
Laura Bermudez
GEF -OAI Advisor
Ministry of Environment, Colombia
Moderator
Laura has experience in design, implementation and monitoring of environmental projects, sustainable development, biodiversity and climate change initiatives at regional, national and international level. High knowledge in financial mechanisms, focus on GEF, biodiversity, protected areas and strategic ecosystems management. Social participation strategies and intersectorial dialogue for conservation and sustainable issues, especially with indigenous people, afrocolombians and farmers. Laura holds a Msc. in Environmental Management for Sustainable Development, she is post-graduated in Negotiation and International Affairs and she graduated in Law and Political Science studies. Laura currently works in the Office of International Affairs of the Ministry of Environment and Sustainable Development as an advisor for the follow-up and formulation of the GEF portfolio in Colombia and is a member of the negotiating team of the Biodiversity Agreement for the post 2020 framework.
Carina Pimenta
Executive Director
Conexsus
Brazil
Carina Pimenta is the co-founder, and current executive director, of Conexsus - Sustainable Connections Institute. Pimenta holds a degree in Business Administration from the São Paulo School of Business Administration and a master's degree in Social Development from the University of Sussex. She works with topics related to conservation finance, climate change in the Amazon, social entrepreneurship, rural development and sustainable communities.
Miguel Mejia
Coordinator, Sustainable Amazon
Project for Peace
UNDP Colombia
Miguel Mejia is an agronomy engineer from the National University of Colombia, he holds a master's degree in Social Anthropology and is a PhD candidate in Agroecology. His professional experience of more than 15 years has been focused on public policies of rural development and environmental management with rural, farmers and indigenous populations, through advice and leadership in public entities of the agricultural and environmental sector. He has also been a research professor in social, educational and agroecology issues.
Currently, he is a National Advisor to the UNDP and coordinates the Sustainable Amazon for Peace project, in which he leads the design and implementation of sustainable productive landscapes and the incorporation of rural development with a low-carbon focus in planning instruments and financial and market oriented mechanisms.
James Leslie
Technical Advisor
Climate Change and Ecosystems UNDP Peru
James is a Technical Advisor on Climate Change and Ecosystems for the United Nations Development Program in Peru. He is responsible for managing a portfolio related to value chains and sustainable landscapes, climate change, environmental finance and biodiversity conservation. Before joining UNDP in Peru, he has collaborated with the World Bank, Yale University, the World Wide Fund for Nature and The Nature Conservancy in Peru, Paraguay, Nicaragua, Ecuador and Mozambique. He has a master's degree in Environmental Sciences with a specialization in forest governance and an MBA, both from Yale. He did his undergraduate degree in Biology and Education at Brown University, United States.
Panel: Empowering the Amazon People
Cindy Vergel
Master in Natural Protected Areas
Moderadora
Cindy has 10 years of professional experience in the private sector (academia, non-profit organizations) and the public sector (environment sector), seven of them linked to the conservation of biodiversity in protected areas. She has managed to work on issues of effective management and financial sustainability, project design, strategic and financial planning and conservation mechanisms, mainly related to protected natural areas in Peru. She holds a degree in Biology from the Universidad Peruana Cayetano Heredia. She has a master’s degree in Protected Natural Areas from the Autonomous University of Madrid, Complutense University and the University of Alcalá de Henares (Madrid, Spain). She has participated in the design and currently coordinates the implementation of the Initiative for Financial Sustainability of the System of Protected Natural Areas of Peru "Natural Heritage of Peru", the country's great commitment to provide sustainability to its key natural assets, led by SERNANP and MINAM.
Mariana Varese
Director, Amazon Landscapes, Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS)
Mariana is Director of Amazon Landscapes at WCS, coordinates the Network of Citizen Science for the Amazon. An economist with more than 20 years of experience in the Amazon and Latin America, she has worked in community conservation, landscape management, and participatory planning. Her current areas of interest are citizen involvement in science, knowledge as a common good, and the effective use of evidence in decision-making. She co-leads with Paulo Moutinho Working Group 12, Power of the Amazonian Peoples of the Scientific Panel for the Amazon.
Paulo Moutinho
Senior Scientific
IPAM-Brazil
Dr. Paulo Moutinho is an ecologist interested in understanding the causes of deforestation in the Amazon and its consequences on biodiversity, climate change and inhabitants of the region. He has worked in the Amazon for 20 years and was co-founder of IPAM Amazônia. He also participated actively in the establishment of the Amazon Fund and of the Brazilian National Policy for Climate Change. He acted as Executive Director of IPAM and currently he is a senior scientist at IPAM, Brazil and a Distinguished Policy Fellow at Woodwell Climate Research Center, USA.
Diana (“Tita”) Alvira
Manager, Conservation for Wellbeing, Field Museum, USA
Diana (“Tita”) is the Manager of the Conservation for the Wellbeing program at the Center for Science and Action at the Field Museum in Chicago, United States. Tita is a socio-environmental scientist and received a degree in biology from the Universidad de los Andes in Bogota, Colombia, has a Master's degree in Botany with a specialty in community forest management and a PhD in Interdisciplinary Ecology from the University of Florida in the United States. Tita is part of an interdisciplinary team of scientists from the natural and social sciences dedicated to applying and putting into action the knowledge of the Field Museum for the conservation of the biological and cultural diversity of the Andean Amazon and improving the quality of life of the communities.
Kurt Holle
Director, WWF Peru
Kurt loves the Amazon and the ironwoods, spider monkeys tiger moths and people that live there. He studied forestry in Universidad Nacional Agraria La Molina. Kurt founded Rainforest Expeditions in 1992 pioneering ecotourism and community tourism in Peru. He has also worked in the Amazon in Peru and Ecuador and in Botswana helping indigenous tourism and conservation entreprises. Since 2018 he is the director of WWF Peru.