HELLEN BERSACOLA

My research combines biomonitoring data with local knowledge to help inform biocultural conservation approaches in agro-forest landscape mosaics.

I am currently a Darwin Research Fellow / Postdoctoral Research Associate at the University of Exeter. I work with Dr Kim Hockings to promote biodiversity conservation, human health and socio-ecological resilience in Cantanhez National Park, Guinea-Bissau. Our project consists of a multi-stakeholder effort, including the Bissau-Guinean biodiversity and protected area management institute IBAP, women and youth representatives from Cantanhez and health workers.

Before coming to the University of Exeter I did my PhD on the spatiotemporal ecology of chimpanzees and other primates living in the agro-forest landscape of Cantanhez. Prior to my PhD I worked in Angola, where I helped describe a new species of dwarf galago, and Indonesia, studying red langurs inhabiting a refuge rainforest in eastern Borneo.

Host: Dr. Kimberley Hockings