About

About the Power of Connections (POC) Project

The POC Project is a collaborative initiative that leverages deep field partnerships cultivated over decades by the University of Florida’s Tropical Conservation and Development Program and the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation. The UF project team has joined forces with thematic experts and seasoned practitioners across the Amazon basin to highlight the many nuanced, cooperative, and effective conservation approaches that embrace the basin’s environmental heterogeneity and rich biocultural diversity.

(POC) Project TEAM AT THE UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA

Project Principal Investigators

Karen Kainer

Professor and tropical forester with extensive research and field experience in Latin America and specializing in forest ecology, community-based forest management, and tropical conservation and development.

Bette Loiselle

Professor at the UF Department of Wildlife Ecology and Conservation and former TCD Director. Bette’s research focuses on biodiversity, climate change, and seed dispersal in tropical ecosystems, with extensive fieldwork across Latin America.

Jonathan Dain

Faculty member and applied anthropologist by training, focusing on conflict management, facilitation, socioenvironmental governance, and capacity building. He has collaborated with Amazon-based organizations for over 35 years.

Pilar Useche

Professor, TCD Interim Director, and applied economist with expertise in international development and sustainable agricultural economics, who has extensive research and field experience in Latin America. 

Post-Doctoral Associates

Vanessa Luna

Peruvian environmental social scientist. She studies fire management, climate adaptation, and environmental governance in Latin America, and was selected for UF’s 2024 Marianne Schmink Award for her work with Quechua communities.

Johanna Espín

Environmental sociologist, examining the dynamics of environmental crime in the Ecuadorian and Peruvian Amazon. Currently, she is also a professor at the Instituto de Altos Estudios Nacionales (IAEN), in Ecuador.

Graduate Students

Angélica Gouveia Nunes

Ph.D. student in Forest Resources and Conservation researching sustainable ecotourism in the Brazilian Amazon. Angelica holds an M.Sc. in Ecology and has over a decade of experience in wildlife conservation and community outreach.

Ana Maria Garrido

PhD candidate in Anthropology, her research focuses on environmental governance, bioeconomy, and the politics of knowledge, using qualitative and participatory methods. Extensive experience working with ethnic and rural communities in Colombia.

Analu Melo Ferreira

Brazilian PhD student in Political Science, specializing in U.S. and Chinese influence on the Brazilian Amazon. Her work connects geopolitics, conservation, and development, drawing on her background in journalism and political communication.

Carolina Simon Pardo

Colombian PhD student in Science Education. Carolina is a filmmaker and educator who uses media production to support community led science and nature conservation.

Silvia Futada

Brazilian PhD candidate with over 20 years of experience in research and civil society. Silvia’s work focuses on conservation, socio-environmental justice, and the rights of Indigenous and traditional communities in Latin America

Wânia Cardoso

Brazilian PhD student in Interdisciplinary Ecology. An environmental lawyer, she researches how Amazon infrastructure projects affect Indigenous territorial rights, bridging political ecology, justice, and human rights.

Claudia Garnica-Díaz

Colombian PhD candidate in Biology researching plant functional traits and forest resilience. Trained as a forest engineer, she values the Amazon’s importance through its ecological connections with upland ecosystems and grew up immersed in national discussions on Amazonian and Indigenous issues.

Basin-centered Thematic Lead

Cláudio Pádua

Claudio is a business administrator and biologist. Claudio has won more than 10 national and international awards for nature conservation and sustainability.

Trent Blare

Ecuador Country Representative at the International Potato Center - CIP / CGIAR, Trent’s research focuses on building food systems that are inclusive of women, youth, and Indigenous communities.

Galo Zapata-Ríos

Wildlife biologist and the Science Director for Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) Ecuador. His work focuses on protected areas, community-based wildlife management, and landscape-scale wildlife monitoring.

João Campos

Ecologist focused on applied research and co-implementation of shared governance with IPLCs to support sustainable practices and conservation rooted in local agency.

Maria Fernanda Checa

Ecuadorian biologist with training in ecology, conservation and sustainability compromised with social and environmental justice through education, research on governance, and collaborative monitoring of biodiversity with park rangers and indigenous communities.

Marlene Soriano

Bolivian forest engineer leading the Inclusive Development Program at Bolivian Institute for Forest Investigation (IBIF) to empower Indigenous communities, women, and youth in sustainable forest governance.

Myrian Barboza

Professor and researcher at the Federal University of Western Pará (UFOPA), currently a member of the Brazilian Ministry of the Environment and Climate Change.

Marisol Toledo

Bolivian biologist, associate professor and researcher at the Universidad Autónoma Gabriel René Moreno (UAGRM). Her field research focuses in (ethno)botany, ecology, and forest management of lowland Bolivia.