Keynote speakers

Throughout the week five keynote speakers addressed the conference theme "Global changes, ecosystem services and multilateral agreement in Latin America and the Caribbean". Perspectives on this theme from science, policy and practice backgrounds were presented.

Below an overview is given of the keynote speakers. Click the presentation titles below to view the presentations in PDF.

Keynotes

• Bernardo Baeta Neves Strassburg - Executive Director of the International Institute for Sustainability (IIS)

On Nature’s values, their valuation and some recent applications

• Joshua C. Farley - Professor in Community Development & Applied Economics

Serviços ecossistêmicos, anti-fragilidade, e cooperação: Uma perspectiva econômica ecológica.

• Marga Gual Soler - Senior Project Director in the Center for Science Diplomacy at the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS)

 Science Diplomacy in the Multilateral System

• Sérgio Talocchi - Natura's Environmental Management

Natura Cosméticos

Biographies

1. Bernardo Baeta Neves Strassburg

Bernardo B.N. Strassburg is the founder and Executive Director of the International Institute for Sustainability (IIS) in Rio de Janeiro, coordinator of the the Centre for Conservation and Sustainability Science (CSRio) and Assistant Professor at the Pontifical Catholic University of Rio de Janeiro (PUC-Rio). He is economist with a M.Sc. in environmental planning (focused on land-use change and ecosystem services in the Amazon), and Ph.D. in Environmental Sciences, focused on issues related to reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation (REDD+).

He is dedicated to the transition to sustainability, with focus in the sustainable use of land and its resources, conciliating production needs, environmental services and social development, by developing  interdisciplinary research,  providing assistance to governments, NGO's  and private companies in the pursue of solutions to sustainability challenges and implementation of projects.

Bernardo has led a number of projects in the interface of REDD, biodiversity, improved land use, ecological restoration and financial incentives and published several scientific articles and reports on these topics. Has provided consultancy to the United Nations, the World Bank, Conservation International, World Wide Fund for Nature, the Brazilian and British governments, among others. Bernardo coordinates the Economics Working Group of the Pact for the Restoration of the Atlantic Rainforest.

2. Joshua C. Farley

Dr. Joshua Farley is an ecological economist, Professor in Community Development & Applied Economics, and Fellow at the Gund Institute for Environment at UVM. He is President-elect of the International Society for Ecological Economics.  He holds a degree in biology from Grinnell College, a Masters in International Affairs from Columbia University, and a PhD in Agricultural and Resource Economics from Cornell.  His broad research interests focus on the design of economic institutions capable of balancing what is biophysically possible with what is socially, psychologically and ethically desirable.  Previous positions include Program Director at the School for Field Studies' Centre for Rainforest Studies, executive director of the University of Maryland Institute for Ecological Economics, Fulbright Fellow and visiting researcher at the Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina, and visiting professor at the UF de Bahia.  His most recent research focuses on the economics of essential resources; redesigning financial and monetary systems for a just and sustainable economy; the just distribution of wealth and resources; agroecology, farmer livelihoods and ecosystem services in Brazil's Atlantic Forest; multi-level selection, cooperation, and prisoner's dilemmas; and transdisciplinary problem solving that integrates research and teaching.  He is co-author with Herman Daly of Ecological Economics, Principles and Applications.

3. Marga Gual Soler

Dr. Marga Gual Soler is a Senior Project Director in the Center for Science Diplomacy at the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), where she explores the role of science as a universal language to help break down barriers and build bridges between people and nations. She currently implements a landmark science cooperation agreement between AAAS and the Cuban Academy of Sciences, develops the Center’s global science diplomacy education and capacity building initiatives, leads a research project analyzing science-policy connections around the world, and serves as an associate editor of the open-access policy journal Science & Diplomacy

Marga serves on the Research, Innovation, and Science Policy Experts Group to the European Commissioner, Carlos Moedas and on the advisory board of the Horizon 2020 project, Inventing a shared Science Diplomacy for Europe. Recently, she was selected as a 2017 Aspen Ideas Festival Scholar and was named one of the “100 Spanish experts in innovation” by Fundación Cotec, "40 Under 40 Latinos in Foreign Policy" by The Huffington Post, and “10 Latinas Think Big Innovators to Watch in 2016.” As a faculty member at Arizona State University, she launched the Science Diplomacy & Leadership Program, a pioneer science diplomacy immersion course in Washington, D.C. In 2014, she founded the Science Slam Festival, an event combining science and the performing arts held in Spain, Mexico, Uruguay and Paraguay under the auspices of UNESCO.

Marga received a PhD in biomedical sciences from the University of Queensland in Australia, a bachelor's and master's from the University of Barcelona in Spain and is an alumna of the prestigious Georgetown University Global Competitiveness Leadership Program. An avid traveler, when she’s not on a plane you will find her scuba diving in underwater paradises.

4. Sérgio Talocchi

Sergio Talocchi is an economist, graduated at the University of São Paulo. He has a Master's degree in Ecological Economics from the Autonomous University of Barcelona, Spain, where he developed research on sustainability of local development scenarios. Between 2001 and 2006 he worked in NGOs - Vitae Civilis Institute and Brazilian Association for the Development of Leadership (ABDL) - coordinating research projects on economic instruments and public policies for sustainable development, training of rural and traditional communities for participatory management of development and articulation of civil society networks for inter-sectoral dialogue processes. During this period, he was also a consultant in management plans for conservation units and business plans for sustainable products and enterprises. At Natura Cosméticos since 2007, he worked until 2013 as a Community Relations Manager, which included structuring supply chains for biodiversity raw materials, negotiating benefit-sharing contracts for access to genetic heritage and traditional knowledge, and supporting for local development. In 2014 he assumed the management of reverse logistics of packaging and supply chains for post-consumer recycled materials. He is also currently responsible for Natura's Environmental Management.