Biodiversity Islands: Strategies for Conservation in Human-Dominated Environments

Dr. Florencia Montagnini has over 30 years of experience researching and teaching in topics on sustainability of managed ecosystems in the tropics, such as forest, tree plantations and agroforestry systems, with a special emphasis on Latin America. Her work as a scientific advisor and consultant has also taken her to Africa and South East Asia.  Her research encompasses sustainable land-use systems that integrate ecological principles with economic, social and political factors; the principles and applications of forest landscape restoration; the reforestation of degraded lands with native species; identification and quantification of ecological services (biodiversity, carbon sequestration and watershed protection); organic farming using indigenous resources; biodiversity conservation in human-dominated landscapes; biodiversity islands. She received her BS in Agronomy from the National University of Rosario, Argentina, her Masters in Ecology from the Venezuelan Institute of Scientific Research (IVIC), Caracas, Venezuela, and her Ph. D. in Ecology from the University of Georgia. Since 1989, has worked as a professor and researcher at the Yale School of the Environment, as well as the Tropical Agriculture Research and Higher Education Center (CATIE). She has written 11 books and over 250 scientific articles about the ecology of tropical forests, agroforestry systems, native species reforestation and forest landscape restoration.