CATARINA C. FERREIRA, PhD            CONSERVATION BIOLOGIST

Welcome! I am a multilingual, broadly trained conservation biologist, with 20 years of international experience in the research, program and project management and policy arenas. I hold two MSc degrees in Applied Ecology (University of Porto, Portugal) and Wildlife Management (Castilla-La Mancha University, Spain), a PhD in Biology from Castilla-La Mancha University (Spain) and I have done 5 years of postdoctoral research between Trent University (Ontario, Canada) and the Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research - UFZ (Leipzig, Germany).

As an academic, I developed a strong scientific background specializing in terrestrial ecology and wildlife management, having dedicated my career to advancing our understanding of the impacts human-induced stressors have on biodiversity. I have published over 30 scientific papers in peer-reviewed top-tier journals, as well as contributed to or co-authored 4 books and participated in multiple science outreach activities. I received numerous grants throughout my career, including a Marie-Skłodowska-Curie International Outgoing Fellowship between 2015-2017, a MITACS Canadian Science Policy Fellowship in 2020 and a Science, Technology, Policy (STeP) Fellowship at the Inter-American Institute for Global Change Research (IAI) in 2021.

As a practitioner, I have a rich cross-sectoral experience in the environmental public, private and not-for-profit sectors in Europe and North America, where I acted as a knowledge broker to support evidence-informed policy decisions. Notably, among other roles, I was the Assistant Director of the first and only Iberian Lynx Captive Breeding Centre in Portugal in 2009-2010, and the European Biodiversity Conservation Coordinator at IUCN in Belgium between 2018 and 2020. I currently work for Environment and Climate Change Canada in the Science and Monitoring Unit of the Protected Areas Directorate as a Senior Conservation Scientist and Coordinator of Environmental Programs.

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My favourite thing about this journey? Working in applied conservation science is often more about working with people than with a particular species of interest. Therefore, conservation biologists typically work at the interface of ecological and human dimensions. For that reason, and although my main drive has always been a career in science, I believe that the experience of working in different environments (outside academia) has been invaluable: not only has it helped increase my understanding of the challenges society faces when it comes to the conservation and management of natural resources, but also of the disparity of views on how to address those challenges. Together these experiences, plus the incredible people I've met along the way, have shaped who I am as a professional (and as a person) and make the job of a conservation biologist the best in the world!