大象传媒

Miriam Marmontel is an oceanographer at the with an MSc in Marine Biology from the University of Miami and a PhD in Wildlife Conservation from the , in Gainesville.

Twenty years ago she turned her attention to freshwater mammals, and has been working with the five Amazonian genera (manatees, giant otters, Neotropical otters, pink and tucuxi dolphins) since then. She has since lived and worked in Tef茅, Amazonas state, Brazil, where she is a researcher with the Mamirau谩 Institute for Sustainable Development, and leads a research group on Amazonian aquatic mammals, working in the Mamirau谩 and Aman茫 sustainable development reserves.

In the early 2000s she spent some time in the Brazilian Pantanal, working with giant river otters, and then started a research program on giant otters in the Aman茫 Reserve.

Jane graduated from York (BSc Human and Environmental Biology) and University College London (MSc Conservation). She became CEO of in 2004. She now leads an international team through a network of 16 offices operating in over 100 countries in Africa, Asia, Latin America, Europe and Russia.

A science-based organisation, Wetlands International focuses on building knowledge and facilitating action to manage wetlands for biodiversity conservation, water security, disaster risk reduction, climate resilience and livelihoods. It works with a broad range of partners, including governments, business and industry and civil society organisations to leverage change.聽

Jane鈥檚 position in Wetlands International follows seven years working on freshwater and in Europe, Australia and globally as well as 10 years as Conservation Director of a multiple use wetland (The Broads) in the UK.

Before that she was an ecological researcher working in Somalia, Belize, Yemen and Australia. She has particular expertise in the ecological restoration of wetlands and on water resource management policy.

Dr Ioris is a human geography lecturer with a particular interest in the political aspects of the interconnections between nature and society. He has conducted extensive research in several countries, including Scotland, Brazil, Portugal and Peru, using water management as an entry point into the political ecology of the allocation, use and conservation of natural resources.

Ioris has a long experience with policy-making and project management in the UK through his work at the , at the UN Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean in Chile and at the Ministry of the Environment in Brazil.

Main areas of research are related to the search for environmental justice in the urban and regional context and the multiple obstacles faced by marginalised communities to influence environmental decision-making.

Professor Lee Alston is the new聽 and a former professor of economics and behavioural science at Colorado University in Boulder. He is also a Research Associate of National Bureau for Economic Research, Past President of the International Society for the New Institutional Economics and President-Elect of the Economic History Association.

Alston鈥檚 research interests over the years have focused on the important roles of institutions, beliefs and contracts in shaping economic and political outcomes in multiple domains. Issues examined include the governance and use of natural resources historically and today; the growth of the US welfare system in the US in the 1960s; and the historical trajectory of Brazil from 1964 to present.

In a forthcoming book, Alston argues that since 1994, Brazil has been on a virtuous path. He researched the state of natural resources in the Amazon in:聽, which he co-authored with聽Gary D. Libecap and Bernardo Mueller.