I am a biogeographer with broad interests in island biogeography, macroecology, community ecology, evolution, and conservation biology. My research interests span diverse themes such as diversity theory, species-area relationships, environmental heterogeneity, threatened species and Protected Areas. I am an authority in the systematics and biogeography of the land snails of the Aegean Sea islands.

I am a conservation biologist eager to investigate spatial biodiversity patterns and create computer tools for planning conservation actions in order to help safeguard the diversity of life. My main current interests are protected area evaluation, identification of Key Biodiversity Areas using multiple taxonomic groups, connectivity of protected areas and ecosystems and indicator formulations to track progress towards global environmental goals.

I am a conservation biologist with a passion for addressing the challenges that global change poses to biodiversity. I am especially interested in developing quantitative techniques for addressing large-scale conservation problems, and evaluate how the solutions to these problems interact with the achievement of other societal goals (such as food production, climate change mitigation, improved human well-being). Since 2009 I’ve worked for Universities, NGOs, and GOs across Europe and Australia, collaborating with >400 researchers worldwide. I have a BSc (2006), a MSc (2009), and a PhD (2013) in Ecology, I am an MSCA and a RL Montalcini alumnum.

I joined the Global Mammal Assessment lab in 2011 as a Master student, and my project aimed at identifying the relationships between managed fires and the persistence of ungulates in savannah landscapes. I obtained a PhD degree in Animal Biology in 2016, and the focus of my research were the impacts of climate change on species, in particular terrestrial mammals, by using life-history traits to identify priority species, both in the present and in the future.
I currently work on assessing the major changes experienced by the species in their distribution (past 50 years), by understanding the role that intrinsic and anthropogenic drivers had on these changes.
I have been also actively involved with the Small Carnivore, the Australasian Marsupial & Monotreme and Primate Specialist Groups for the reassessment of mammals.

I graduated in Biological Sciences at the University of L’Aquila. Later, I specialized in Ecology and Ethology for Nature Conservation at the University of Parma, where I completed an internship at the National Research Council (CNR) in Milan. My work focused on the spatio-temporal study of aquatic macrophyte populations in the Sirmione Peninsula on Lake Garda, using remote sensing techniques and Sentinel-2 imagery.
I am part of The Global Mammal Assessment (GMA), a program conducted at the Department of Biology and Biotechnologies, Sapienza University of Rome, which is a part of the IUCN Red List Partnership. Additionally, I am involved in the Italian National Coordination Group for KBAs, with my research project centered on contributing to the establishment and management of this group.
In addition to my work as a researcher, I am also a scientific illustrator, creating detailed and accurate illustrations for publications related to conservation and biodiversity.

Giordano is a PhD student funded by the italian National Operational Program (PON) for research and innovation. He is working on climate change exposure measurement to support IUCN Red List climate change assessment, in collaboration with the sRedList working group. He is also interested in the effect of global change on human-biodiversity coexistence.

I work on landscape ecology addressing ecological approaches to desertification, and the analysis of ecological connectivity in conservation networks. A recent development is a geomatics-based methodology for the assessment and monitoring of land degradation, which has been so far applied to 9 regions all over the world and has been officially adopted by Spain and Portugal for reporting to the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification. I am currently investigating links between land degradation and ecological conservation. Frequently used techniques include remote sensing, spatial modelling in GIS framework, topographic analysis of Digital Elevation Models, geostatistics and fractal analysis of surfaces. I coordinate the research group on Desertification and GeoEcology at EEZA (CSIC).

"My main line of research focuses on understanding how climate change and land-use dynamics impact the effectiveness of protected areas. Through various analyses, it is possible to assess whether these areas will continue to preserve the environmental conditions they currently safeguard, and how future environmental shifts could lead to their isolation. This research highlights the growing risk of fragmentation and the loss of connectivity under global change scenarios, providing crucial information for managers to anticipate and mitigate the threats to biodiversity conservation.

In addition, I explore the effects of global change on insects, the most diverse and ecologically fundamental group. Recognizing their crucial role as indicators of environmental health, I study how climate and land-use changes alter their distribution, phenology, and community composition. By combining microclimatic and macroclimatic modeling techniques with advanced remote sensing tools, I aim to provide accurate assessments of biodiversity responses to global threats, thereby contributing to the development of more effective conservation strategies."

With extensive experience in biodiversity conservation, this profile includes managing the species programme at the IUCN Centre for Mediterranean Cooperation and overseeing the Mediterranean Biodiversity Standards and Indicators unit. Key contributions include coordinating initiatives such as the Evaluation of Mediterranean Biodiversity Phase II, assessing extinction risks for key taxonomic groups, and developing strategic conservation plans for threatened species in North Africa. Current work focuses on mitigating threats to biodiversity in the Mediterranean, including invasive species prevention, wildlife mortality reduction due to infrastructure, and advancing Nature-based Solutions (NbS) for ecosystem resilience and biodiversity restoration. Additionally, she holds roles as KBA Regional Focal Point for Europe, North Africa, and the Middle East, contributing to regional and international conservation efforts.

Axel Hochkirch is Curator for Ecology at the National Museum for Natural History in Luxembourg and Associate Professor at Trier University, Germany. He is chairing the IUCN SSC Invertebrate Conservation Committee as well as the IUCN SSC Grasshopper Specialist Group. His main research focus is biodiversity conservation, but he als also authored numerous papers on evolutionary biology, phylogenetics, population genetics, ecology and behavioural ecology. He is mainly working with insects (particularly grasshoppers), but has also worked on population genetics of wall lizards, European wild cats and Northern bald ibis. 

I am a PhD student in biogeography in Trier. I have worked for one year as tecnical assistence for Senckenberg Institute and studied Ecology and Evolution in Frankfurt am Main before.

My research focuses on understanding and assessing the impact of conservation interventions and in particular how resources, management, governance, and socio-economic context influences the effectiveness and performance of protected areas. I primarily address this through a global lens, utilizing large global dataset from conservation organizations, research institutions as well as from remote-sensing sources to develop correlative models of what predicts conservation success when possible through the use of quasi-experimental methods and setups. This work currently has three (3) overarching themes: Global patterns of anthropogenic threats to biodiversity, Understanding the impact of protected area and Improving the effectiveness of protected areas.

Andrew Plumptre, PhD, is head of the Key Biodiversity Areas (KBA) Secretariat, based at BirdLife International in Cambridge, UK.  The KBA Secretariat supports the implementation of the KBA Programme of the 13 KBA Partners which is focused on identifying, mapping, monitoring and conserving sites of importance for the global persistence of biodiversity.  In this role he works with governments, scientists and conservation practitioners to train and support KBA national Coordination Groups to identify their KBAs. With more than 30 years in international conservation, he has worked extensively in East and Central Africa where he supported the establishment of new protected areas using scientific data from biological and socioeconomic surveys, together with the engagement of members of local communities. He supported protected area authorities to better manage and conserve their protected areas in this region and developed tools to monitor and improve law enforcement practice which are now being applied around the world.Andrew Plumptre