Mariano Gonzalez Roglich

Country Director - Argentina

Mariano González Roglich, PhD (Argentina program Director) is native from Rio Negro, Argentina. Mariano holds a doctorate in environmental sciences and policy (Duke University), a master’s in interdisciplinary ecology (Florida University), and bachelor’s in natural resource management (Universidad Nacional de La Pampa, Argentina). Prior to joining WCS, Mariano worked at Conservation International’s Center for Science, where he led the development of analysis and tools for identifying conservation and restoration priorities. Mariano has over 20 years of scientific, conservation, and capacity building experience globally, primarily in the Americas and Africa.

Andrés Novaro

anovaro@wcs.org

Land Conservation Director

Andrés is a researcher in the Argentine National Research Council (CONICET) and has spearheaded WCS’ conservation and research in the Patagonian and Andean Steppe since 1999. He studied the effects of hunting on culpeo foxes for his PhD at the University of Florida. He has led research and conservation action related to ecological extinction of native wildlife, guanaco migrations, and predator-livestock conflict, and mentored numerous graduate and undergraduate students. He received a Whitley Fund for Nature award in 2005 for leading a WCS team working with government and oil companies to close oil roads that provided access to remote areas where wildlife had been decimated by poaching. He has been a key participant in the launching of and planning for the WCS Karukinka landscape in Chile, conservation planning for the steppe’s biodiversity, development of sustainable livestock practices, mitigation of extractive industry impacts, and strengthening of protected areas.

Valeria Falabella

vfalabella@wcs.org

Marine Conservation Director

In her first 10 years as Marine Biologist, Valeria Falabella worked on marine mammal’s research, ecology and diving behavior. During four years (1999-2003) her work was focused on scientific transference as the Scientific Coordinator at the EcoCentro Museum, in Patagonia. Since 2004, she works on marine conservation as the Assistant Director of the Sea and Sky Project. She manages the marine GIS database of WCS-Sea and Sky in order to identify priority oceanic areas and design spatial conservation tools for the management and conservation of the Patagonian Sea Ecosystem biodiversity. The main goal is the establishment of management plan for the Patagonian Sea, including MPA and a network of areas under special management regimes. She is also a member of the IUCN World Commission on Protected Areas (WCPA).

Angela Liliana Droescher Guerrero

adroescher@wcs.org

Finance and Administration Manager

Graduated in Business Administration from the Universidad del Rosario (Colombia) and M.Fin Candidate from the Universidad Torcuato di Tella (Argentina). She has more than 15 years leading teams in financial and operational areas in companies from different industries, especially in the technology sector. Currently, she is in charge of the Administration and Finance Area of WCS Argentina and is responsible for the efficient and transparent management of the organization's financial resources at the local level.

Carina Fernandez Righi

crighi@wcs.org

Counter wildlife trafficking Coordinator

Biologist specialized in ecology and conservation, with a master's degree in environmental management and a Diploma in Environmental Law. Before joining WCS, Carina worked in various NGOs in the Country, leading species conservation programs, commitments with the government, civil society and the private sector. She has worked for 20 years in various research and conservation projects with marine and terrestrial species. She has been a member of various regional and global zoological associations. Her experience is extensive in the field of wildlife rehabilitation centers, networks against wildlife trafficking, such as the Argentine Network Against Illegal Wild Species Traffic. She has collaborated in various government initiatives to mitigate wildlife trafficking, being a member of CONADIBIO, government work groups and developing strong links at the regional and global level for actions against the illegal wildlife trade.

Claudia Pap

cpap@wcs.org

Accountant & Auditor

Claudia Pap graduated as an Accountant in 1996. She worked in an accounting studio in Puerto Madryn, Chubut between 1996 and 1997 and between 1997 and 2005 in Trelew . As from 2005 she has run her own accounting studio. Between 1996 and 2000 taught Accounting and Auditing, Taxes at the Economic Sciences University of the Universidad Nacional de la Patagonia. She is the accountant for WCS Argentina since 2007.

Florencia Lemoine

flemoine@wcs.org

Communications Manager

Degree in Institutional Communication (Universidad Nacional de La Plata) and Master in Marketing and Branding (Universidad de San Andrés). To the present, Florencia has dedicated almost 2 decades to communication on environmental issues in Argentina and Latin America, working with civil society organizations, B-Corporations and communication agencies in the development and coordination of Communication, Press, Branding and People strategies. Currently, she´s responsible for designing and implementing the communications of WCS Agentina to contribute to the conservation targets of the Program.

Guillermo Harris

gharris@wcs.org

Senior Conservacionist

Graduated as a veterinarian in the Buenos Aires University, is also a wildlife artist and writer. Based at the Wildlife Conservation Society’s field station at Golfo San José, on the coast of Patagonia between 1981 and 1991 writing and illustrating field guides on local wildlife. On staff with WCS since 1992, was named WCS Country Director for Argentina in 2000. Directed projects funded by the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) and the Global Environmental Facility (GEF) aimed at strengthening management and wildlife conservation on the coast of Patagonia from 1993 to 2014. These projects were instrumental in the reduction of oiling of Magellanic penguins at sea and in the creation of the first marine park in Argentina, a 1,100 square kilometer coastal marine protected in the north of Golfo San Jorge, in 2009. Author of Princeton's "Guide to the birds and mammals of coastal Patagonia" and co-author of Acindar's two tome "Nueva Guía de Aves Argentinas". Harris received the Bay and Paul Biodiversity Leadership award in 2005 and WCS’s Conway Fellowship award in 2008.

Juan Martín Cuevas

jcuevas@wcs.org

Sharks and Ray Conservation Coordinator

Juan Martín Cuevas joined WCS Argentina in late 2015, to develop and implement a program of work on sharks and rays in the Patagonian Sea. Juan Martín received his Licentiate in Biological Sciences from Universidad Nacional de Mar del Plata (UNdMP) in Argentina, his MSc in Zoology from Universidade Estadual de Santa Cruz (UESC) in Brazil and completed his PhD in Natural Sciences from Universidad Nacional de La Plata (UNLP) in Argentina, with his Thesis titled Conservation tools for chondrichthyans in the Argentine Sea. In addition to his own field research, Juan Martín's priorities for the new program are networking with regional experts and assessing the current state of knowledge of species and fisheries, identifying data gaps, and developing a set of priorities for a five-year program of work, including research priorities.

Lara Heidel

lheidel@wcs.org

Land Conservation Coordinator and Spatial Planning Analyst

She has a degree in biological sciences from the Universidad de Buenos Aires and her areas of professional interest are ecology and spatial planning with emphasis on the interaction between people and wildlife, the search for alternatives to the conflicts between conservation and production, and evaluation and mitigation of the impacts of the climate change on wildlife. She was chosen to participate in the 2009-2010 class of Emerging Leaders in Wildlife Conservation, sponsored by the Gilman Foundation, Defenders of Wildlife, USFWS, IFAW, and the Wildlife Conservation Network. She is a founding member and former president of a local NGO, Conservación Patagónica, based in San Martín de los Andes.

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Associate Researchers

	Phd. Adrian Schiavini - Land Mammals in Tierra del Fuego PhD in Biological Sciences from the University of Buenos Aires. He currently works as Principal Researcher at CONICET and Professor at the National University of Tierra del Fuego, Antarctica and the South Atlantic Islands. For 30 years he has been studying the ecology of birds and mammals in Tierra del Fuego, generating applied knowledge to resolve conflicts with human activities and the creation of protected areas. In the last 15 years his career has focused on studies applied to invasive species in Tierra del Fuego, such as beavers and feral dogs.
	Phd. Alejandro Gatto - Exotic Invasive Species PhD in Biological Sciences (University of Buenos Aires). He is currently a CONICET researcher at the Center for the Study of Marine Systems, Puerto Madryn. He has participated in projects related to the ecology and conservation of Patagonian seabirds associated with the Wildlife Conservation Society since 1999. He has participated in more than thirty research, conservation and environmental education projects in various natural areas of the country covering several different environments and species. These experiences involved working together with local leaders, local authorities, researchers, park rangers, environmental educators, members of NGOs, and local communities. His academic work is mainly focused on the ecology of communities and the trophic ecology of Patagonian birds, studying for more than twenty years the structure of bird assemblages associated with marine and continental wetlands as well as those associated with terrestrial environments in Patagonia and diverse aspects of the trophic ecology of seabirds.
	Phd. Andrea Raya Rey - Seabirds in Tierra del Fuego Biologist and PhD in Marine Ecology, of the University of Buenos Aires, Argentina. Andrea lives and works as a researcher at CADIC- Argentine National Research Council. She has been studying seabird ecology and conservation, during the last 20 years mainly in Tierra del Fuego, Beagle Channel and Staten Island, but also in other places in Patagonia, Antarctic Peninsula and the extended Patagonian Shelf. Her research has been funded by national and international agencies, including Wildlife Conservation Society as a field staff. Andrea has been carrying on a long-term monitoring on breeding, feeding and spatial ecology of seabirds in the region. Her research helps to identify hot spots and main threats in the marine ecosystem for seabirds breeding and foraging in the Southwest Atlantic Ocean and Beagle Channel. This in turn allows promoting Marine Protected Areas and guidelines for better practices for seabird and ocean conservation.
	Phd. Esteban Frere - Seabirds in Santa Cruz Biologist and PhD in Marine Ecology, of the Universidad de Buenos Aires, Argentina. Most of his postgraduate curses were done at the University of Washington, USA. He has been studying seabird ecology and conservation, as field staff of WCS, during the last 30 years at the Patagonian Coast. He was working, particularly, on penguins, cormorants, albatross and petrels. His studies were focused on coastal Patagonia closely related to management of protected areas, assessing on the design and management of protected areas at state government. He has been working not only in the Southwestern Atlantic but also in the Pacific Ocean at Chile and Peru during the last years. He is professor of the Universidad Nacional de la Patagonia Austral, Santa Cruz province and researcher of the CONICET (National Scientific Agency). During the last two years, he was coordinating the Global Seabird Programme of BirdLife International in South America.
	Phd. Luciana Musmeci - Seabirds in Chubut PhD in Biology. Assistant Researcher – Institute of Austral Diversity and Evolution (CONICET) since 2016, Puerto Madryn. Her main research topics are in migratory, population and trophic ecology of migratory shorebirds in Patagonia, conservation of the sites they use; and the monitoring of southern flamingos in Chubut, their reproductive ecology and management for the conservation sites.
	Phd. Natalia Dellabianca - Marine Mammals in Tierra del Fuego Phd. in Natural Sciences, graduated from the Universidad Nacional de La Plata. She arrived Tierra del Fuego in 2004 to do an internship at the Acatushún Museum with Dr. Goodall. Two years later she settled permanently in Ushuaia and since then she has been working in the Laboratory of Ecology and Wildlife Conservation of the Austral Center for Scientific Research (CADIC-CONICET) and is part of the research group of the IMMA Project. Her research is related to the life history and spatial ecology of Antarctic and sub-Antarctic marine mammals, with special interest in climate variability on them.
	Phd. Pablo Yorio - Seabirds in Chubut Phd. in Biological Sciences at the University of Buenos Aires. He works as a researcher at the Centro para el Estudio de Sistemas Marinos-CONICET in Puerto Madryn and is Professor of the Seabird Ecology and Conservation course at the Universidad Nacional de la Patagonia. Since 1984, he has been associated to WCS conducting research on the ecology and conservation of Patagonian seabirds, including penguins, gulls, terns and cormorants. Research topics have included distribution and abundance of breeding populations, breeding biology, habitat selection, feeding ecology, interactions with human activities, and conservation strategies. He has worked closely with conservation and fisheries government departments and the National Parks Administration providing advice in seabird conservation and planning of coastal environments. He has also acted as consultant on topics related to coastal and marine conservation for several national and international organizations. He is member of the Penguin Specialist Group of IUCN.
	Phd. Ricardo Baldi - Coexistence & Conservation in Chubut Ricardo’s PhD research at the University of London demonstrated that competition with introduced sheep was a primary force behind the dramatic decline of the guanaco population in the region. Currently he is a researcher of the Argentine National Research Council (CONICET), he now leads WCS Argentina’s regional conservation planning for guanacos. He is a member of the South America Camelid Specialists’ Group of the IUCN, and led the process of evaluation of the status of the South American camelids for the IUCN Redlist. He has served frequently as a consultant on issues related to guanacos, maras, and Darwin’s rheas for provincial and federal government agencies, and was the lead author of the national management plan for the guanaco in 2006. Based in the coastal Patagonia city of Puerto Madryn, he also works with a group of ranchers in the Peninsula Valdés World Heritage Site to help them meet Wildlife Friendly™ standards of production on their sheep farms.