Faculty

The GIA project is led by an Executive Committee of faculty from UF’s Tropical Conservation and Development (TCD) program, in the Center for Latin American Studies; they are from multiple disciplines with diverse professional and geographic expertise.

Andrea Chavez

Andrea Chavez

As a Geographer, Andrea is co-leading the governance and infrastructure grant activities in the Pan-Amazon Community of Practice to improve transparency and accountability of infrastructure planning for good governance of protected areas mosaics. She has been a Courtesy Faculty in the Center of Latin American Studies and the Tropical Conservation and Development Program since 2015 and is an affiliated researcher in the Spatial Ecology & Conservation (SPEC) Lab.

For more than 20 years, Andrea has been conducting research in community management of natural resources in the forests of Cusco, Madre de Dios, Ucayali in Peru, Acre, Brazil, and Pando, Bolivia. She has focused on the importance of government policies for land use decision-making in tropical frontier areas, where the highest total forest clearing takes place and environmental and socio-economic implications for forest cover change can be devastating.

Angelica Almeyda Zambrano

Angélica Almeyda Zambrano

Angélica M. Almeyda Zambrano is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Tourism, Hospitality & Event Management where she co-leads the Spatial Ecology and Conservation Lab of the University of Florida (UF). She is also an affiliated researcher with the Osa & Golfito Initiative at the Woods Institute for the Environment at Stanford University.

Her research centers on human environment interactions, focusing on social and ecological feedback loops with consideration to sustainability in the present and into the future. In particular, she looks at land use and land cover change dynamics in the tropics and their relation to economic activities. Angélica is currently expanding her research on the sustainability of ecotourism and its role as a development and conservation strategy in the tropics.

Bette Loiselle

Bette Loiselle

Loiselle holds a joint appointment as the Director of the Tropical Conservation and Development in the Center for Latin American Studies and Professor in the Department of Wildlife Ecology and Conservation in the College of Agricultural and Life Sciences of the University of Florida (UF). She joined the Center in 2011 following an 18 month detail as Director of the Division of Environmental Biology at the National Science Foundation.

Her research interests include conservation, seed dispersal mutualisms, ecological niche modeling, and applications of Geographic Information Systems technology for biodiversity research and conservation.

Robert Buschbacher

Robert (Bob) Buschbacher

Bob is the Coordinator of the Pan-Amazon Infrastructure Governance Community of Practice and Learning. An ecosystem ecologist, Bob spent 14 years at WWF-US and WWF-Brazil where he directed the Tropical Forestry Program and was technical director of WWF-Brazil. At University of Florida (UF), he has managed the Working Forests in the Tropics IGERT, the Amazon Conservation Leadership Initiative, and the Governance and Infrastructure (GIA) Project.

His research interests involves collaborative management of complex social-ecological systems.

Claudia Romero

Claudia Romero

Claudia is a courtesy professor in the Department of Biology of the University of Florida (UF). As a Tropical Applied Ecologist, she has worked to build and enhance existing research and action capacity of stakeholders at different levels in developing countries to improve natural resource management and alleviate poverty. She is an evidence-based researcher and advocates for adoption of robust approaches to understand impacts of policies and interventions that affect tropical forests and their peoples, so that learning opportunities are not missed.

Eben Broadbent

Eben Broadbent

Eben is an assistant professor of Forest Ecology & Geomatics in the School of Forest Resources and Conservation at the University of Florida. He is also a faculty affiliate of UF’s Tropical Conservation and Development Program, Center for Latin American Studies, Water Institute, and Biodiversity Institute. He co-directs the Spatial Ecology and Conservation Lab (www.speclab.org) and the GatorEye Unmanned Flying Laboratory (www.gatoreye.org).

He is involved in projects ranging from leaf to global spatial scales and linking social sciences with forest ecology, conservation biology, and remote sensing. Some recent projects include investigating feedbacks between soil fertility and land use decision making in the context of rapid infrastructure development in the Amazon and linking land-use change with water quality and biodiversity in Costa Rica. 

Marianne Schmink

Marianne Schmink

Marianne has worked to build interdisciplinary research and training programs, integrating social science and natural science perspectives to address conservation and development issues with a focus on the Amazon region. She served as Director of the Interdisciplinary Tropical Conservation and Development (TCD) research and training program from 1988-2010, and over the years she worked with colleagues to raise significant grant and endowment funds to support fellowships, research grants, internships and other activities for University of Florida (UF) students and faculty.

She also helped to develop programs at UF focused on gender and development issues, including the MERGE program (Managing Ecosystems and Resources with Gender Emphasis) and she served as editor of a series of MERGE case studies on gender, community participation, and natural resource management.

Simone Athayde

Simone Athayde

Simone is an environmental anthropologist and interdisciplinary ecologist, who has carried out extensive research and training activities in collaboration with Amazonian universities in Brazil. Simone recently accepted an associate professor position with the Kimberly Green Latin American and Caribbean Center and the Department of Global and Sociocultural Studies at Florida International University, but continues to collaborate with the University of Florida (UF) through the GIA Project, the Tropical Conservation and Development Program (TCD), and the Amazon Dams International Research Network .

Her research interests include conservation of biocultural diversity, inter- and transdisciplinary research and practice, indigenous knowledge systems, and participatory research and management of social-ecological systems.

Stephen Perz

Stephen Perz

Perz is a professor at the Sociology and Criminology & Law department at the University of Florida. He conducts research on the social and ecological impacts of infrastructure on developing regions. This involves collaboration with other faculty and graduate students in various departments, centers, and schools at UF.

His research focus on the Amazon, specifically the “MAP” region in the southwestern corner of the basin where Bolivia, Brazil and Peru meet. There he collaborates with scholars across many disciplines, countries and types of institutions.

Collaborator Partners

Key individuals and local organizations are helping GIA to plan and implement our work in the focal regions, providing deep knowledge of the issues, actors and ongoing strategies and actions.

Leddy Cecilia Sanjinez Lara

Leddy Cecilia Sanjinez Lara

Leddy Cecilia studied industrial chemistry at the Pedro Domingo Murillo Higher Industrial School, standing out in the subjects such as organic and inorganic applied analysis, unit operations. She developed a protocol for soil analysis Amazonians and later obtained her degree in environmental engineering developing a thesis based on phytoremediation with an endemic Amazonian macrophyte named Tarope.

Cecilia has worked in the NGO HERENCIA developing environmental awareness programs, and at the Amazonian University of Pando as a substitute teacher, and is currently the coordinator of the GIA project in Bolivia. She is an active part of UPAB (Union of Bolivian Environmental journalists), combining her work with other activities dedicated to conserving the Amazon.

Ney Maciel

Ney is an Anthropologist, with a PhD from the University of Brasília (UnB). He works on ethnology, with an emphasis on interethnic relations, the relationship between environmentalism and indigenism, and indigenous environmental and territorial management processes.

He has worked with indigenous peoples since 1996, having experience in coordinating technical groups for the identification and delimitation of indigenous lands; analysis of conflicts and socio-environmental impacts resulting from ventures in the Brazilian Amazon; and elaboration of territorial and environmental management plans (PGTAs) for indigenous lands. He is currently an advisor to the International Education Institute of Brazil (IEB). 

Almir Suruí

Brasil

Associação Metareilá do Povo Indígena Suruí

Nilcélio Jiahui

Brasil

Associação do Povo Jiahui (APIJ) 

Antonio Enesio Tenharin

Brasil

Organização Povo Indígena do Alto Madeira (OPIAM)

Ivaneide Bandeira Cardozo

Brasil

Associação de Defesa Etnoambiental Kanindé

Thiago Castelano Parintins

Brasil

Organização dos Povos Indígenas do Amazonas (OPIAM) 

 

 

Pí Suruí

Brasil

Comunidade Paiter Suruí, membro da Kanindé e comunicadora do Mídia India

Iremar Ferreira

Brasil

Instituto Madeira Vivo

Neiva Araújo

Brasil

Universidade Federal de Rondônia (UNIR)

Ruth Alipaz Cuqui

Bolivia

Mancomunidad de Comunidades Indígenas de los Ríos Beni, Tuichi y Quiquibey

David Gonzalo Barba Vaca

Bolivia

Comité Defensor de la Vida Amazónica en la Cuenca del Rio Madera

Lidia Antty Antty

Bolivia

Organización Comunal de la Mujer Amazónica

Waira Jacanamijoy

Colombia

Asociación Tandachiridu Inganokuna

Flora Macas

Colombia

Asociación Tandachiridu Inganokuna 

Kar Atamaint Wamputsar

Ecuador 

Federación Interprovincial de Centros Shuar FICSH

Andres Ozuna Ortiz

Paraguay

Unión de Comunidades Indígenas de la Nación Ishir

Lidia Ruiz Cuevas

Paraguay

Tierraviva a los Pueblos Indígenas del Chaco 

Post Docs

GIA post docs are recent UF graduates with research expertise on governance, conservation, and development, plus professional skills and experience working with diverse stakeholders for collaborative learning.

Jazmin Gonzales Tovar

Jazmin Gonzales Tovar

Jazmin focuses on environmental governance, policies, land/resource rights and environmental justice. She earned her PhD in University of Florida (USA), her MSc in Wageningen University (The Netherlands) and her BSc in Universidad Nacional Agraria La Molina (Peru).

After working with NGOs, the government and other organizations in Peru, she joined the Center for International Forestry Research (CIFOR) to collaborate in a global comparative study on multilevel governance of land use and REDD+. Later, for her PhD research, and in partnership with CIFOR, she examined the politics and equity of multi-stakeholder territorial planning processes in Brazil.

Currently, she is a postdoctoral researcher at UF, as part of the Governance and Infrastructure in the Amazon (GIA) project, leading a comparative case study on the effectiveness of conservation strategies in Colombia, Bolivia, Peru and Brazil. Jazmin has participated in various projects related to land use, climate change, protected areas, environmental education, biodiversity and wetlands in Peru, Equatorial Guinea, Nigeria and Uzbekistan.

Martha Rosero Peña

Martha Rosero Peña

Martha is a Ph.D. in Environmental Sociology and Race & Ethnicity, University of Florida Department of Sociology and Criminology & Law. She has worked in environmental management, teaching and as an advisor to projects implemented with indigenous peoples and Afro-descendant communities in regions such as the Colombian and Peruvian Amazon, as well as, the Chocó Biogeographic region in Colombia and Ecuador.

Her research focus is related to socio-environmental responses and ontological design approaches related to climate change, adaptation policies in tropical regions especially for rural areas and the inhabitants of forest regions such as indigenous and Afro-Colombian communities.

Currently, Martha is conducting a post-doc research in Colombia on collaboration between institutions and local communities, and indigenous people as an important strategy for effective environmental governance. This research is part of the Governance and Infrastructure in the Amazon Project (GIA Project) leading by the Tropical Conservation and Development Program (TCD) and The Center for Latin American Studies (LATAM) which is funded by Betty and Moore Foundation.

Students & Assistants

The students that collaborate with the project Governance and Infrastructure in the Amazon (GIA) have vast professional experience and ongoing partnerships in
GIA focal mosaics. They are carrying out masters and PhD research in collaboration with GIA partners, while facilitating Communities of Practice and Learning to exchange experiences and promote dialogue for learning and application of tools and strategies for infrastructure governance.

Alexandra Sabo

Alexandra Sabo

Alli is a Ph.D. Candidate in the Department of Geography at the University of Florida (UF). She is a human geographer whose current work focuses on hydropower development in the Brazilian Amazon.

Broadly, she is interested in the multiscalar governance of climate change and energy development; the socio-spatial implications of energy development and energy transitions; and the forms of social mobilization and resistance that energy development and expansion generate, and is particularly interested in the ways that each of these processes are gendered.

She has worked for the past 4 years at UF on an interdisciplinary research team exploring hydropower development in the Amazon as a Water Institute Graduate Fellow and as a member of the Amazon Dams Network.

Ana Luiza Violato Espada

Ana Luiza Violato Espada

Analu is a Ph.D. Candidate in Forest Resources and Conservation, School of Forest Resources and Conservation at the University of Florida (UF). She has extensive professional experience working with tropical forest management, forest certification, community forest management and implementation of public policies related to sustainable natural resources management in the Brazilian Amazon.

Her current research involves developing a participatory-action research in extractive reserves from Acre, Amazonas, and Pará states to understand what has led communities to legally manage their timber, and identify variation in co-managed forest schemes. Her research will contribute to the understanding of the adaptive multi-stakeholder process to conserve forest and promote community empowerment. At GIA project, Analu is part of the communication team, and develops content for social media and the website.

Angelica Gouveia Nunes

Angélica Gouveia Nunes

Angélica works as a Research Assistant to the Governance and Infrastructure Project (GIA). She is a Biologist/Ecologist from Brazil with great field-work experience working with wildlife conservation, community outreach, and developing educational campaigns to raise environmental awareness in the Amazon for the past 8 years.

Her previous research focused on the ecology and conservation of Amazon river dolphins. She worked developing sustainable tourism solutions for the  “dophins” (botos) in Rio Negro, Amazonas, and also researched the impact of fisheries on botos’ populations. She is currently assisting the Amazon Dams Network and the GIA Project with scientific communication, website development, and content creation.

Carla Mere Roncal

Carla Mere Roncal

Carla is a Ph.D. student in the School of Forest Resources and Conservation of the University of Florida (UF). She is a Peruvian tropical biologist and has been working in the Peruvian Amazon for the past 8 years, including work with the Peruvian non-profit Conservación Amazónica (ACCA) and conducting research with indigenous people in Loreto (Maijuna) and Cusco (Machiguengas) regions.

Carla’s work and research experience encompass studies on avian, mammal, and dung beetle ecology, and the use of “Traditional Ecological Knowledge” (TEK) of Amazonian indigenous communities. For her Ph.D. dissertation, she wants to apply a landscape approach to study assemblages of terrestrial birds in the Amazon.

Carolina Jordão

Carolina Jordão

Carolina is a Ph.D. student in Interdisciplinary Ecology, at the School of Natural Resources and Environment of the University of Florida (UF). She 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 nonprofit Instituto Centro de Vida (ICV).

For her dissertation research, Carolina has been working with the Rede de Capacitação da Amazônia (Recam) network and is particularly interested in exploring issues around culture, funding, collaboration and learning in socio-environmental NGOs in the Brazilian Amazon, she has also been exploring issues of gender integration in socio-environmental projects.

Dalena Nguyen

Dalena is an undergraduate student studying public relations and political science in the College of Journalism and Communication at the University of Florida (UF). She will be graduating with her Bachelor’s degree in Spring 2021. Dalena is passionate about applying strategic communication tactics to help nonprofit organizations reach their goals.

At UF, Dalena serves as the communication intern in the Governance and Infrastructure in the Amazon (GIA) Project. Her responsibilities include editing and updating the website, creating content for social media, and providing her knowledge to the CMP3 working group.

Felipe Veluk Gutierrez

Felipe Veluk Gutierrez

Felipe is a Ph.D. student in Forest Resources and Conservation, School of Forest Resources and Conservation of the University of Florida (UF). He is a passionate social-forester from Brazil interested in collaborative action-research related to governance, resilience of socio-ecological systems, community forest management, social activism/leadership and rural development in the Amazon and other parts of the Neotropics.

At UF, Felipe has been working in the Governance and Infrastructure in the Amazon (GIA) Project, with a focus in the regions of  the southern Amazonas and northern Rondônia states (Purus/Madeira interfluvial region), analyzing the different strategies and tools being used to promote good governance, conservation and development.

Gabriel Carrero

Gabriel Carrero

Gabriel is a Ph.D. Candidate at the Geography Department of the University of Florida (UF). He is a biologist and human geographer with vast experience in the Brazilian Amazon. For the past 12 years, Gabriel has worked with forest monitoring, land-use change, and sustainable production systems, as program manager for Climate Change and Environmental Services, and later for Sustainable Rural Production at the Institute of Conservation and Sustainable Development of the Amazon (IDESAM). Currently, he is a senior research associate at IDESAM.

His current research focuses on how human-environment interactions happen in agricultural frontiers of the Brazilian Amazon in topics of frontier heterogeneity, development processes, land appropriation, and land-use change, and its implications for conservation and development in times of rapid climate change events.

Juliana Santiago

Juliana Santiago

Juliana is a M.A. student in the Center for Latin American Studies of the University of Florida (UF). Since 2006 she has worked for the Brazilian Development Bank (BNDES), financing investments for segments crucial to her country’s sustainable development, such as forest protection, sanitation, waste management, transportation and public management. From 2013 to 2018 she served as the Head of the Amazon Fund, a REDD+ mechanism to support efforts to prevent, monitor and combat deforestation, as well as to promote the preservation and sustainable use of the Amazon.

While monitoring projects in remote areas of the Amazon, Juliana was moved by the experiences of traditional communities struggling to defend their territories from the ravages of loggers, miners and the expansion of agribusinesses. Inspired by hundreds of community-level initiatives, her research aims to propose financial mechanisms to support a sustainable forest-based economy that respects ecological, social and cultural values.

Marliz Arteaga Gómez García

Marliz Arteaga Gómez García

Marliz is a Ph.D. student in Interdisciplinary Ecology, School of Natural Resources and Environment of the University of Florida (UF). During her professional life, Marliz worked as an environmental consultant in different public and private institutions in the area of environmental management.

Since 2007, Marliz has also been and is currently a professor at the Amazonian University of Pando. She is one of the leaders of the International Research Network: Amazon Dams International Research Network – ADN / RBA / RIRA. Her research is focused on environmental governance, political ecology, socio-ecological systems, participatory research, mixed research methods, and sustainable development.

Michael Esbach

Michael Esbach

Michael is a Ph.D. Candidate in Interdisciplinary Ecology, School of Natural Resources and Environment of the University of Florida (UF). He is an interdisciplinary scientist who combines scientific tools with local knowledge and participation to support biocultural conservation.

From Equatorial Guinea to Kenya, Ecuador, and the Solomon Islands, Michael has worked with indigenous communities to bridge different knowledge systems, use the power of natural history to empower scientific inquiry, and create meaningful engagement in conservation.

His research explores traditional management techniques as models of resilience. Michael’s works seeks to empower indigenous self-determination by demonstrating the effectiveness of indigenous knowledge and management strategies.

Sinomar Fonseca Jr

Sinomar Fonseca Jr.

Sinomar is a Ph.D. student in Interdisciplinary Ecology, School of Natural Resources and Environment of the University of Florida (UF). For the past 13 years, he has been working in protected areas management in the Brazilian Amazon. He has worked with participatory monitoring programs, management plans with a focus on capacity building of a variety of stakeholders and local empowerment and involvement.

For his dissertation research, Sinomar is interested in assessing the impacts of local level environmental policies and governance in the Brazilian Amazon.

Pamela Montero

Pamela Montero-Alvarez

Pamela is a Ph.D. student in the School of Natural Resources and Environment at the University of Florida (UF). She is a Peruvian biologist with experience in protected areas and community-based management of natural resources, planning and participatory tools for rural diagnosis. She has professional experience as a Specialist on Governance for the Regional Office of Loreto for “Peru Bosques” – a USAID/Peru Project, and later served as Specialist on Natural Protected Areas for the same project.

Pamela identifies her research interests to include relationships between conservation and tourism, social capital, protected area conservation strategies linked to sustainable development, and community-based tourism.

Vanessa Luna Celino

Vanessa Luna Celino

Vanessa is a Ph.D. student in Interdisciplinary Ecology, School of Natural Resources and Environment of the University of Florida (UF). She has experience working with ecological and conservation projects in the Peruvian Amazon as a science coordinator of two biological stations in Manu National Park. In this position she promoted information sharing of scientific data among park rangers, indigenous conservationists, government environmental regulators, among others.

She is interested in the promotion of spaces where conservation efforts that really work are shared, so she is very excited to be part of the Governance of Infrastructure in the Amazon project (GIA).

Gordon and Moore foundation

The Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation Andes-Amazon Initiative supports GIA as part of their commitment to ensuring transparent and participatory governance for environmentally and socially appropriate infrastructure development that safeguards protected areas, forest cover and free-flowing rivers.