Researchers and practitioners from around the world contributed to the development, direction and management of the PARTNERS restoration network. A heartfelt thank you to all who made this work possible.
STEERING COMMITTEE
Ruth DeFries
Social Scientist
Ruth DeFries’ research examines human transformation of the landscape and its consequences for climate, biogeochemical cycling, biodiversity, and other ecosystem services that make our planet habitable.
Tom Rudel
Co-investigator, Social Scientist
Tom Rudel conducts research on land use change. He has researched the driving forces behind tropical deforestation both through case studies in the Ecuadorian Amazon and through quantitative analyses at the global scale.
Ashwini Chhatre
Social Scientist
Professor Ashwini Chhatre’s research interests are broadly centered on the dynamic cross-scale interactions between democratization, economic development, and environmental governance.
Elena Lazos Chavero
Social Scientist
Elena Lazos Chavero’s research interests include the conservation of agro-biodiversity, social and political dynamics of Mexican agriculture, gender and sustainable development, issues of transgenic maize in Mexico as well as ecosystem services.
David Barton Bray
Social Scientist
David Barton Bray is currently Professor in the Environmental Studies Department at Florida International University and Director of the Institute for Sustainability Science in the Latin American and Caribbean Center at FIU.
Michael R. Willig
Co-investigator, Natural Scientist
Michael R. Willig has an internationally renowned career in environmental sciences, working in Brazil, Paraguay, Peru, Puerto Rico and the US, with an emphasis on application of quantitative and statistical techniques to understand the ecology and conservation of coupled human and natural systems.
María Uriarte
Natural Scientist
Maria Uriarte is an Associate Professor in the Department for Ecology, Evolution and Environmental Biology at Columbia University. Through an integrated program of empirical and quantitative approaches, research in her lab examines forest ecological dynamics in response to natural disturbance and human land use.
Pedro Brancalion
Natural Scientist
Pedro Brancalion is a Tropical Forestry Professor at the Department of Forest Sciences of the “Luiz de Queiroz” College of Agriculture, University of São Paulo, Brazil, where he develops research and outreach programs on tropical forest restoration in human-modified landscapes.
Carla Catterall
Natural Scientist
Professor Carla Catterall is an ecologist and environmental scientist in the School of Environment at Griffith University. Her research interests lie in the responses of diverse organisms to habitat change in subtropical and tropical ecosystems.
Manuel Guariguata
Natural Scientist
Manuel Guariguata serves as CIFOR’s Principal Scientist on tropical forest ecology and forest management for production and conservation. Before joining CIFOR he was a forest researcher at CATIE, Costa Rica, where he also worked as a Professor on Conservation Biology in the Graduate Program. Manuel also served as Environmental Affairs Officer at the Secretariat of the Convention on Biological Diversity where he facilitated intergovernmental deliberations on forest biodiversity and climate change.
Jefferson S. Hall
Natural Scientist
Jefferson S. Hall is a Staff Scientist at the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute (STRI) and the Agua Salud Project Leader.
Robin Chazdon
Principal Investigator, Natural Scientist
Robin Chazdon is a Professor in the Dept. of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at the University of Connecticut. She specializes in ecology and regeneration of tropical and temperate forests, conservation and restoration of tropical forests, tropical second-growth forests, biodiversity and conservation in agricultural landscapes.
Bryan Finegan
Natural Scientist
Bryan Finegan leads research on global change effects on tropical forest ecosystems, mainly in Central America, with a growing focus on socio-ecological approaches in partnership with colleagues and graduate students at CATIE, where he works, and the University of Idaho.
John Herbohn
Natural Scientist
John Herbohn is the Director of the Tropical Forests and People Research Centre at the University of the Sunshine Coast. John’s core research interest is in the field of smallholder and community forestry in tropical countries.
LEADERSHIP TEAM
Robin Chazdon
Principal Investigator, Natural Scientist
Robin Chazdon is a Professor in the Dept. of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at the University of Connecticut. She specializes in ecology and regeneration of tropical and temperate forests, conservation and restoration of tropical forests, tropical second-growth forests, biodiversity and conservation in agricultural landscapes.
Sarah Jane Wilson
Postdoctoral Researcher and Research Coordinator
Sarah Jane Wilson is a tropical ecologist and human geographer. Her work focuses on community-based forest restoration throughout the tropics, using a combination of in-depth field studies (including Andean Ecuador, Nepal, and Guatemala) and global synthesis and analysis.
Julian Moll-Rocek
Outreach Coordinator
Julian Moll-Rocek is a recent graduate of Harvard College, where he studied Evolutionary Biology. He has spent time in Panama, Peru, Guatemala and is currently working as a visiting researcher at the Centro Internacional de Agricultura Tropical in Colombia.
Trevor Caughlin
Literature Coordinator
Trevor Caughlin is interested in spatial patterns in plant populations and communities. His research addresses how demographic processes, including seed dispersal and neighborhood competition, generate spatial patterns in plant populations, how landscape features, such as human land use, influence plant demography, and finally, how plant communities alter landscapes.
Claire Salisbury
Biologist
Claire Salisbury is a biologist interested in the evolution, conservation, and restoration of tropical forest biodiversity.
Renata Leite Pitman
News Editor
Renata Leite Pitman is a tropical conservation ecologist working in Brazil, Peru and United States. She owns a private reserve in the Brazilian Atlantic Forest, where she created the Atlantic Forest Research and Conservation Center and where she runs a habitat restoration project for the last 21 years. She is research associated with the Duke University, Frankfurt Zoological Society and The Field Museum of Natural History.
Rúben Dario Palacio
Courses and Student Opportunities Editor
SharidMukul
Jobs and Grants Editor
Sharif has a background in forestry from Bangladesh (Shahjalal University of Science and Technology), Germany (Technical University of Dresden) and Denmark (Copenhagen University). He is currently pursuing doctoral study and research at the University of Queensland, Australia. His has studied sustainable use, management, and conservation of forests and biodiversity. He is interested in the potential role of forests and other less modified landscapes as an ecological niche, their contribution in ecosystem functioning, and the role of various human activities on their structure and performance..
PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATORS
Robin Chazdon
Principal Investigator, Natural Scientist
Robin Chazdon is a Professor in the Dept. of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at the University of Connecticut. She specializes in ecology and regeneration of tropical and temperate forests, conservation and restoration of tropical forests, tropical second-growth forests, biodiversity and conservation in agricultural landscapes.
Tom Rudel
Co-investigator, Social Scientist
Tom Rudel conducts research on land use change. He has researched the driving forces behind tropical deforestation both through case studies in the Ecuadorian Amazon and through quantitative analyses at the global scale.