Lara Monteiro

I am an ecologist studying for my PhD in Natural Resources at the University of Vermont (USA). I have a degree in biology from the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro and a master’s in Ecology and Evolution from the Federal University of Goiás (Brazil). I worked for five years as a sustainable development researcher at the NGO International Institute for Sustainability, where I focused on the planning and execution of projects related to ecosystem restoration and sustainable management in the Brazlian Cerrado and Atlantic Forest. Studying the Cerrado, the world’s most biodiversity-rich savanna, deepened my commitment to this vast open ecosystem, which is often overlooked by forest-oriented science and policy. This led to my current PhD research topic, which is focused on understanding the incentive mechanisms and motivations for restoring open ecosystems such as savannas and grasslands, with particular emphasis on the Cerrado.