Who we are

Co-founder. Patrícia is a certified trainer in Education for Sustainable Develoment. With a PhD in forest governance and management, she is a forest engineer, social and environmental researcher from Brazil with many years of experience in project development and policy advice, working with different actors (from traditional communities to private sector and government, for example). Patrícia has always been interested in multi-disciplinary topics that affect environmental and development issues, particularly because they are highly relevant and intimately connected in her home country. The focus of her work is related to green measures to reduce climate change and deforestation, and social behavior changes towards sustainable development and valorization of natural resources.

Co-founder. She is a biologist from Bolivia with a doctoral degree in science working on conservation and sustainable development of rural areas of her country since 2001. Marolyn focuses her work on climate change integrating scientific and traditional knowledge for adaptation and mitigation measures. She performs on this topic from different angles, not only research but also on the field of environmental education. Her biggest motivation is to contribute to the development of accurate climate policies to support the sustainable development of areas in need and work with people from different backgrounds.

Co-Founder. Mariana is a certified trainer in Education for Sustainable Development. She holds a Ph.D. in Natural Resource Management from the Technical University of Dresden and works as an independent consultant in the field of climate change adaptation and climate risk management. Mariana also holds an M.Sc. in Tropical and International Forestry from the Georg-August University of Göttingen. She has extensive experience in sustainable forest management and land use change processes with local communities, ministries and development agencies in Latin America.

Forest engineer. Master of Tropical Forestry and Management from the Technische Universität Dresden. Bamboo expert with more than 15 years of experience in research, management and capacity building. Her research focus is neotropical woody bamboo taxonomy and ecology. Her interest in bamboo resides in the great possibilities for these plants to reduce primary forest deforestation, increase carbon capture, and enhance biodiversity, among other ecosystem services.

Barbara is a certified trainer for Education for Sustainable Development. She is biologist from Brazil with a Master in Environmental Planning from the Technische Universität Berlin, Germany. She has been involved in numerous international projects, working with sustainable development, nature conservation, landscape ecology, environmental education, citizen science, among other topics. Barbara has a strong interest in biodiversity and nature conservation, climate change mitigation and adaptation and education for sustainable development.

Catalina is a certified speaker for education for sustainable development. She is a journalist from Chile and has a master's degree in interdisciplinary Latin American studies with a focus on gender studies from the Freie Universität Berlin. She is currently working as an education officer with schoolchildren and young people on sustainable food systems, migration and displacement, prejudice, diversity, and racism. In this context, she places particular emphasis on promoting dialogue between the global north and the global south.

Co-founder. Daniela is a biologist holding a Master degree in Tropical Forestry and Management. During the last few years, she has been committed to a wide scope of areas of investigation including genotoxic assessment of soils, water and food resources; environmental impact assessment on road construction projects and management and conservation of terrestrial ecosystems in Bolivia. Her research interests are focused on theoretical and methodological aspects of biodiversity assessments at global and regional scale combining computational modelling and remote sensing techniques.  

María, a Costa Rican biologist, holds an M.Sc. in Ecosystem Services with a focus on Environmental Social Sciences from the Technical University of Dresden. Her professional dedication centers on increasing awareness about nature’s contributions to human well-being, advocating for the sustainable utilization of natural resources. With this goal in mind, she has acquired significant experience in environmental education, scientific research synthesis, and scientific communication methods; all  tailored to different target groups. Currently, she is researching the impact of pro-environmental behaviors, such as volunteering, on people's mental health.

Agricultural Engineer (Universidad Nacional de Colombia), with a M.Sc. in Horticultural Science (TU München), and PhDc in Forestry (TU München), with over 12 years of experience in international and multidisciplinary environments, including project implementation, change management, strategic planning, open source implementation, and a transdisciplinarity mindset. His work has been carried out in regions like Latin America, North America, Europe, and Africa. He is currently focused on developing Agroforestry systems that expand the Water-Energy-Food nexus approach, by including a forest and landscape-planning component, combined with a deep understanding of stakeholder concerns. During his free time, he enjoys making music with his guitar and cuatro.

Malu is a social Forester from the Universidad Nacional Agraria La Molina (Peru), with a Master’s degree in Tropical and International Forestry from the Technical University of Dresden, Germany. She has extensive experience working throughout the Peruvian Amazon with native, riparian, and rural communities implementing participatory approaches. She is also experienced in community forest conservation projects, forest tenure, socio-ecological landscape restoration, drivers of deforestation and improving rural livelihoods.

Elizabeth is a biologist from Venezuela. She has a Master in tropical forestry and Management from the TU Dresden, Germany. Currently a doctoral student of Neuroscience at the Carl Gustav Carus University Clinicin the Medical Faculty of the TU Dresden, she has a broad work experience in projects that range from ecosystem services, GIS applied for protected areas management and experimental psychiatry. She has a keen interest in understanding what drives people’s behavior and how this knowledge can be used to find new strategies for social and environmental management and governance.

Tati is passionate about spatial predictive ecology and wildlife management, especially when these come coupled with big data and complex models. After acquiring her Ph.D. in Natural Sciences at the Technische Universität Dresden in 2017, she has held in the last five and a half years a Postdoctoral followed by a Research Associate position at the Faculty of Forestry at the University of British Columbia (UBC) in Canada. Currently, she is a Guest Scientist at the Institute of Forest Growth and Forest Computer Sciences at TU Dresden, Germany. At UBC she has been working with big datasets to answer large-scale landscape and wildlife ecological questions on various themes.

After traveling through South-East Asia and Latin America I realized the challenges we face in today’s world. Whether climate change or pollution, we humans have greatly impacted this beautiful place called planet earth. Ignited by the thought to make a contribution or difference I studied Management, Tourism & Sustainability in the Netherlands, to that adds a study in Politics & Sustainability in Taiwan and a study in International Relations in Brazil. I am an enthusiastic and optimistic person, and together with BluoVerda I want to restore this beautiful paradise.

Member. Sascha is a computer scientist from Berlin with a strong passion for all kinds of creative endeavors, with a focus on photography, filmmaking and light art. After living and traveling in Latin America for quite some time the land and its people will always occupy a big place in his heart. Sascha loves mountains and forests and everything living inside and is happy to use his varied set of skills to contribute to their survival if possible.