Andrea Muñoz

Principal Investigator - Sustainability for Conservation

Andrea Muñoz Barriga has a PhD in Natural Sciences in the area of Human Geography from the Sustainability Department at Ernst-Moritz-Arndt, University of Greifswald, Germany. The topic of her doctoral studies was “Governance and Management of two Biosphere Reserves in Ecuador: Galapagos and Sumaco”. Moreover, she has a M.Sc. in the area of Agroecology from the Georg-August University of Goettingen, Germany where she was conducting research related with coffee in agroforestry systems. She also has a B.Sc. in Biology from the Pontificia Universidad Católica del Ecuador (PUCE) in Quito. Her research has an interdisciplinary characteristic, working since 2007 in the Galapagos Islands with different topics linked with the development and conservation in protected areas, social ecological systems, gentrification, links between nature and society, among others. She was recruited by the Charles Darwin Foundation in June, 2023 as the Principal Investigator of the program of Sustainability studies for conservation.

At the moment she is developing the research line of sustainable tourism, where one or the Project is related with the evaluation of ecological, social and psycographic carrying capacities of the Galapagos Islands. In 2024 she will start with a new project of coffee in agroforestry systems in the humid highlands of Santa Cruz looking for the balance between conservation and development.