Overbrook Fellows: Supporting Conservation in Latin America

2007 Fellows

Erio Curto  |  Laura Navarro Noriega  |  Julio Reyes
Luis Rivera  |  Regina Sanchez Castaneda  |  Armando Valdes-Velasquez 

Luis Rivera (Argentina): The ecology and conservation of the Alder Amazon parrot in neotropical cloud forests, and its implications for forest management.

Bio: I was born in Jujuy, a small city in Northwestern Argentina surrounded by montane forests. As a child I wandered into the forests and rivers and become interested in nature. Over time, however, I witnessed the habitat degradation and transformation of the areas where I used to play, and thus decided to become a conservation biologist. While an undergraduate in biology, I got involved in a project monitoring the largest breeding colony of flamingos in South America (Mar Chiquita Lake, Cordoba, Argentina) and another involving the avifauna of the Chaco region. After obtaining my undergraduate degree, I was accepted into the Wildlife Management Masters Program at University of Cordoba and completed a thesis on the effect of over-grazing and fire on the population dynamics of the most valuable timber species (the White Quebracho) in the Chaco region. During that time, I also participated in a project determining conservation priority areas of the piedmont forest, which is the most threatened ecosystem of Argentina and Bolivia due to its high rate of transformation to agricultural land and unsustainable timber harvesting. Currently and for the last four years, I lead the Alder Amazon (Amazona tucumana) Conservation Program aimed at the conservation of an endemic and threatened parrot species and its Southern Yungas habitat. The program aims to gather information on the ecology and biology of the species and to assure its preservation through conservation education and the sustainable use of natural resources. I also founded the Fundación para la Conservación y Estudio de la Biodiversidad, an NGO to support research focused on resolving problems of biodiversity conservation in northwestern Argentina. I am currently seeking my PhD at University of Cordoba.