My background is mainly in species conservation, education and capacity development. I researched mother-young interactions in gorillas and chimpanzees, in captivity and the wild. After that, I worked for three years in Indonesia, where I developed and implemented youth ambassador and community engagement programmes on local and regional scales. I work as Community Manager at WildHub since 2020, and I am an Associate Member of the Durrell Institute of Conservation and Ecology (DICE) at the University of Kent where I obtained my PhD on capacity development for conservation in 2022.
Marta Villasán Barroso
Biodiversity Conservation Biologist , Ecoenergías del Guadiana / Fauna&Vida NGO / SEO BirdLife
I'm from Badajoz, a little city near Portugal at Extremadura, Spain. I love my region because is plenty of wild nature, birds, forests, rivers... but is endangered too.
I have a BSc in Biology and a MSc in Biodiversity Conservation. I have more than 15 years of experience in Environmental Education with school kids and the general public. I'm interested in all related topics about ecology, conservation and all living creatures and their relationships, that makes possible the life on Earth.
I have worked in Paraguay granted by University of Salamanca and UNESCO Chair "Education for Sustainable Development: Strengthening lines of research in the area of biodiversity and the link with society". My duties were teaching experiments design and basic biostatistics at UNA (Universidad Nacional de Asunción); doing a biodiversity's bird research at the San Rafael National Park (the major Atlantic Forest patch remaining), ringing birds and teaching young students how to carry out a basic research; and doing environmental education with young child and population living at the natural park influence area.
I stayed at Madeira (Portugal) working on two LIFE projects, one to protect the endemic sparrowhawk "Furabardos" and the other to take care of marine birds. The LIFE projects are the UE tool to support and fund the conservation on their territories.
Later I have devoted to natural ecotourism at Extremadura (Spain) and scuba diving tourism at Sharm el Shaik (Egypt), in addition to environmental education, or little research and consultancy tasks. I have a youtube channel to outreach environmental issues and my own talks. Is in Spanish, but if you want you could take a look at it.
Currently, I have a job at an environmental consulting at Extremadura (Spain), working about the compensatory measures to take during and after the construction of photovoltaic plants. I take care of bird nests, mitigation and prevention of bird and bat mortality at the high voltage lines, soil restoration, reforestation, etc. I'm glad to carry out this work because I'm sure I'm doing the best to protect the nature while the construction of renewable energy plants are trying to reduce the climate change.
In addition, I take part from two NGOs: Fauna&Vida, a environmental conservation and education organization from Paraguay, where I'm currently the Education and conservation programs Director, and SEO/BirdLife, the ornithological society to protect birds, where I coordinate the volunteer group in my city.
Specialising in wildlife conservation. I completed my masters in 4 different countries including an internship and thesis semester. I have worked on animal behavioural of captive species, genetic health of reintroduced species and monitoring population of Scottish Wildcats.
Nguyen Van Kien
principal researcher, Vietnam National plant genebank - plant resources center (prc)
My work is serving plant genetic resources conservation and use intervention for food and agriculture development (PGRFA) in Vietnam. We design, develop, carry out platform and strategy, programs on PGRFA and relevant areas, including consultancy, training activities. Currently, we are trying to focus on diversity and evolution works of crop and wild crop relatives (CWRs)in the contexts of climate changes, nutrition and health styles and ecosystem services payments and environments as well as values series of culture, spirit and religions that plant genetic resources contribute to sustainable human social development against future challenges. I hope that we could exchange experience, idea and innovation to contribute in developing a better world. We are looking forward to hearing your feedback, support and cooperation soon
I work for WildTeam UK, helping to deliver training workshops, write conservation best practice manuals and share them as widely as possible. Previously a Writing Fellow working with various conservation organisations across India. Background in research, particularly behavioural ecology. Bird nerd.
I help run a UK charity that builds the capacity of conservationists to plan, implement, monitor, and report on their work. I also have a fair bit of experience in tiger and sea turtle conservation.
Highly experienced in supporting policy and decision making through delivering data on marine species, coastal pollution, and water delivery on the local, state, and federal levels. Early in my career I took every opportunity I could to gain experience in marine mammal science from California to Quebec. These opportunities created strong connections eventually guiding me to researching plastic pollution while earning my masters degree. As I finished writing my thesis, I began working with NASA on projects using satellite imagery and big data to investigate drought, this experience immensely strengthened my project management, mapping, and analytical skills. Last year I ventured into conservation writing wanting to build on my science communication skills. I would be happy to feature your project or career journey as a blog post within WildHub, so feel free to reach out to set up a short chat/interview.
Dr Renuka Thakore is the Founder of Global Sustainable Futures: Progress through Partnership Network to achieve Sustainable Development Agenda 2030 targets. She provides a collaborative platform for innovative and transdisciplinary partnerships and capacity development for early career researchers joined by senior experienced researchers from Global South and Global North. Dr Thakore believes in broader sustainable development concept and uses multi-dimensional lens (social, economic, environmental, political, institutional, cultural, and technological) of sustainability, innovations, and theoretical framings to address the problems of societal systems and propagates this through various activities – research, teaching, and practice towards achieving global sustainable goals 2030 and beyond. She encourages systems thinking, engagement and active participation of multiple stakeholders for effective governance and management for sustainable transformations, use of transdisciplinary methodologies, co-creating solutions that are multi-modal and ‘value-added’ to relevant stakeholders. Renuka is proud of having support of 320 Coordinators from 79 countries.
I'm a WildLearning Specialist with WildTeam, a bit of an odd job title. My main role is to design, deliver and organise both our online and class-based training courses. One of the best parts of my job is meeting other conservationists and learning about the work that they do. Before working for WildTeam I did a PhD in invasive plants and human-wildlife interactions. I find it really interesting to learn about the ways people interact with nature, both when nature is being wonderful, but also when it is being a bit annoying!
Andrea is the Program Director for the Wildfire XPRIZE. XPRIZE leverages the power of competition to catalyze innovation and accelerate a more hopeful future by incentivizing radical breakthroughs for the benefit of humanity.
Prior to joining XPRIZE, Andrea served an 11 month detail as the Interim Director of Smithsonian's Office of Academic Appointments and Internships. She led a team of nine dedicated team members who were responsible for managing internships, fellowship, and research associate appointments for 3000+ students, researchers, and early- to mid-career professionals.
In 2019, Andrea joined the Smithsonian as the Director of Program Development for the Smithsonian Institution’s Conservation Commons, an action network that applies the Smithsonian's cultural and scientific expertise to achieve outcomes truly consequential to sustaining Earth’s biodiversity and ecosystems. In this role, she wore three hats -- fundraising, partnerships, and programming for Earth Optimism and the Conservation Commons.
Andrea joined Smithsonian after nearly two decades at the World Wildlife Fund (WWF). At WWF she served as the Director of the Russell E. Train Education for Nature Program and contributed to the development of 2000+ conservation leaders across Africa, Asia, and Latin America. During her tenure, she led a $5-million program to build capacity for protected area management in the Andes-Amazon; developed a multi-year reforestation and restoration program; launched several fellowships programs in countries undergoing dramatic social, political and economic change; and partnered with SAS, a leading data analytics company, on a project to crowd-source data on global conservation learning opportunities. She co-founded the Conservation Leadership Community of Practice and was part of the planning committee for the 2019 Conservation for Capacity Building Conference in London, UK.
Prior to joining WWF, Andrea had a brief but memorable stint managing the Sarapiqui Conservation Learning Center in Chilamate, Costa Rica, an experience that contributed to her passion for improving outcomes for people and nature. She has also served as an international student advisor at American University providing visa and cultural advising to thousands of international students. She taught English in Germany and Costa Rica. She also worked on the highly successful 1994 US PCS Broadband Action, the first ever spectrum auction.
Andrea brings more than 20 years of experience in international education and exchange, conservation capacity development, and cross-cultural communications. She is fluent in Spanish. She holds a master’s degree in international communication from American University, Washington, DC and a bachelor’s degree in international relations from the University of Dayton, Dayton, OH.
I was born in Switzerland, but my current home is Costa Rica where I have been living with my wife and daughter for the last 25 years. Over two decades, I have developed extensive knowledge in sustainability topics along with a wide experience in designing, fundraising, and implementing conservation biology programs, biological corridors, project planning, implementation and monitoring, the leadership of inter-institutional alliances at the national, bi-national, regional and international level, as well as in the creation of protected areas. My areas of expertise include biodiversity, landscape issues, connectivity conservation, transboundary conservation, protected areas, and World Heritage Sites, sustainable development, wildlife, governance, and ecosystem conservation. I have worked for local and international NGOs and the academy, and define myself as a passionate conservation practitioner compromised with high standards of excellence, and a team player able to build strong intercultural relationships. I love trail running, photography, reading, cooking, traveling, and meeting new people from different cultural contexts. I am fluent in French, English, Spanish, Portuguese, with limited working proficiency in German and Indonesian. I am currently learning Mandarin and Arabic.
Alan David Kaminski
Control poblacional de perros de libre desplazamiento., Alan David Kaminski
My name is Alan D. Kaminski I live and work in Argentina, for more than 12 years I have dedicated myself to research and work in the area of ethology (dogs). The places where I worked were several and I met science from a very young age through the Bernardino Rivadavia Natural Science Museum, I also worked in Hospitals with the problem of domestic animals within them, in Zoonosis Institutes of various departments working with aggressive animals and conduct disorders, collaborate and work for the Jane Goodall based in Argentina doing etogram of elephants. Currently I am dedicated to population control of dogs, and how their activities interact with wildlife. The work consists of not mistreating any animal and evaluating all the possibilities that we have to be able to have an ethical management of the situation. My interests are work in the field, as well as research and dissemination of science and social work.