About us

Wild nature is a source of inspiration for me and I feel at home there. Next to a huge tree in the old-growth forest, on the foggy riverbank or sitting on a mountain - nature helps to recharge my batteries and to experience small and big wonders. In the last 20 years I have seen whole forest landscapes disappear, cities and roads have covered lakes and valleys. Pristine nature is becoming rarer by the year - at a frightening rate that compels action. I love nature and, as part of Wilderness International, I want to fight to ensure that our Earth will continue to be one thing: Wild and beautiful.

I was born in the Andes, in Urcos, near Cusco, a wonderful place full of nature at that time. As a child, I moved with my family to Madre de Dios, where I have now lived for more than 45 years. I love the trees, rivers, streams and waterfalls, the heat and the sounds of nature with its thousands of species of animals here. Although I have to admit that I don't like mosquitoes very much. I have worked for numerous entities in Puerto Maldonado, from tourist accommodations to government organizations to family businesses. But working with Wilderness International is the most fulfilling for me because I see us preserving the things I love so much. And most importantly, because I feel that in this way I can also raise awareness in others about how to care for, protect, and preserve our beautiful natural world.

I grew up in rural western Canada and know that I was very fortunate to enjoy the freedom of the outdoors, hiking, camping and horseback riding. This is how my identity has evolved over my lifetime, deeply connected to nature and wild spaces. I feel joy and freedom whenever I experience something new or unexpected in the beauty of nature and the world around me....

I never thought I would end up in conservation. Actually, I've always been interested in other, more social issues. But no one can convince you to protect the environment as much as nature itself. Standing under a giant tree and feeling its age, seeing whales and hearing wolves howl. I cannot and will not imagine a world without that. And so, since the first time I went to the wilderness as a high school student with WI, I've stuck with it. I organized an exchange with the Gwich'in in the West Arctic and lived north of the Arctic Circle for five months to do it. After that, I studied intercultural communication. In Team Communication I can combine both passions and share the beauty of wilderness with others.

I have been living in Peru since 1995 and carry out biodiversity research, tropical forest conservation, environmental education and community development projects for the organization Fauna Forever. My focus is on the rainforests of the Madre de Dios region in the southeast of the country. I previously completed my PhD in Biology at the University of East Anglia, an MRes at the University of York and a BSc at the University of Edinburgh.

My joining Wilderness International was definitely a happy coincidence – in the right place at the right time, with the right people committed to preserving wild nature. A Peruvian friend introduced me to Fabian Mühlberger in 2018. Fabian and David MacDonald then accompanied me to the Peruvian Tambopata rainforest to photograph the wildlife of the Amazon and to explore the potential for conservation projects in the region. It is always fun for me to show environmentally conscious people this corner of the Amazon, because the sheer diversity of animal and plant species never ceases to take people's breath away. I was very pleased that Fabian and David were no exceptions. 

I believe in community conservation because it takes a lot of minds and skills to properly implement processes in this area. That's why we soon started talking about WI's conservation goals. It quickly became clear that WI's strategy of preserving wilderness areas with high biodiversity would fit very well into the local socio-ecological context, and soon enough, I began to actively support the WI team in establishing a permanent presence in the Peruvian Amazon. Today, I am the Chairman of the Board of Directors of WI-Peru and lead the process of evaluating and subsequently sourcing suitable land for long-term conservation measures in Peru.