Colombian researcher Dr. Alejandra Echeverri Ochoa is helping governments and local communities to assess and appreciate the ecological services being provided in a scenic part of Colombia's Caribbean coast.
Echeverri, a postdoctoral scholar at the Natural Capital Project based at Stanford University in California, USA, says her work with Colombia's national planning department aims to better account for the ecological role played by the mangroves, forests, and coral reefs in the Gulf of Morrosquillo, before local agencies implement a regional development plan.
"My current research explores how to integrate the natural capital embedded in ecosystems into Colombia’s development plans," she says, "Together with my colleagues, we've been working to understand which ecosystems are providing crucial benefits to the local communities in the Gulf."
Echeverri explains that her team is evaluating the role of mangroves in protecting people from flooding and coastal storms, the role of ecosystems in capturing carbon, and the role of forests in securing water provision to an expanding touristic sector.
She says the biggest challenge in this project is politics because protecting the environment is a decision that politicians have to make.
"As scientists interested in having impact, it is our job and mission to convince politicians to protect the environment; because by doing so, people and nature will thrive," she says, adding that it is hard to convince politicians that protecting ecosystems will mean people will be far better off in the future.
She says that, for example, it is difficult to make the case that if coral is protected now, it will eventually replenish fish stocks that can yield higher profits from fisheries. On the flip-side, there can be damage from transforming ecosystems to get immediate economic returns, for example, cutting down mangroves to put up a hotel that can start generating jobs and profit immediately.
"The biggest opportunity here is helping Colombia develop sustainably, one project at a time," she says adding that Colombia has the highest avian diversity and second highest amphibian and mammalian diversity in the world, as well as being culturally diverse with more than 170 ethnic groups.
"This project has the opportunity to demonstrate how with good science and meaningful partnerships between academia and government agencies, we can protect forests, mangroves, coral reefs while we allow people to meet their basic needs like drinkable water or access to a hospital," she says, "If we show that we can help communities develop sustainably without undermining the surrounding ecosystem’s integrity in the Gulf, then we can inspire other places and communities in the country to do it as well."
A beach on the Gulf of Morrosquillo
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From Coffee Country To Norway, To The World
Echeverri grew up in Manizales, a city in the heart of Colombia's traditional coffee growing region, surrounded by a family members trained as civil engineers and biologists, who nurtured her love for nature and the outdoors.
"The traces of wildlife were everywhere, from bird’s nests to ocelot footprints," she says.
Growing up in this environment inevitably drew her to biology and upon finishing her undergraduate degree in biology at Colombia's Universidad de los Andes, she moved to Norway and worked with the Norwegian Peace Corps to develop educational material for the environment and peace.
"Working on this project taught me that environmental issues are fundamentally social issues, which motivated me to pursue graduate school in resources, environment, and sustainability," she says, "My work now is deeply interdisciplinary bridging biological and socio-cultural perspectives in environmental issues."
Echeverri feels her scholarly papers have spurred great interest in the conservation community and general public, who are increasingly appreciating the importance of understanding and informing people’s attitudes to design more effective conservation strategies.
"Nonetheless, this journey has not been easy," she says, "As a Latina and a non-native English speaker, I've experienced many difficulties, including language barriers and cultural differences."
Echeverri explains that publishing research articles in English is the metric by which scientists are judged, so everyone who is not a native-speaker starts with a disadvantage and it can take them a few years to catch up.
"Moreover, the cultural differences are enormous: In Colombia for example, being humble is a most admired human characteristic and showing results as a team rather than individuals is often admired," she says, "whereas in the North American academic culture, self-promotion and individualistic competition is most often the norm."
Dr. Alejandra Echeverri Ochoa is a postdoctoral scholar at the Natural Capital Project based at ... [+]
Mollie Chapman
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