Biologist
Juliana Machado Ferreira
Contributing to the great effort taken by many people, agencies and organizations to combat wildlife trafficking and prevent its harmful impacts is the reason why Brazilian-born biologist Juliana Machado Ferreira has devoted her life to this issue since 2005.
She is currently the Executive Director of the non profit organization Freeland Brasil, whose mission is to conserve biodiversity by ending wildlife trafficking. Freeland Brasil works in partnership with Freeland Foundation, based in Bangkok, an internationally respected counter wildlife trafficking and counter human trafficking organization.
As Freeland Brasil’s Executive Director, she coordinates projects which can be divided in three categories: (1) reduce demand for wild pets and wildlife parts and products through educational efforts and awareness actions; (2) support to law enforcement against wildlife trafficking, international articulation and facilitation for the development of a regional wildlife enforcement network; and (3) development of scientific research to produce tools for law enforcement use, such as DNA paternity exclusion tests as a way to control the activity of legalized wildlife commercial breeders. Dr Ferreira’s main life’s project is to set up an Independent Wildlife Forensics Laboratory in Brazil to develop dedicated research and perform high quality forensic analyzes on wildlife crime related evidence to all South American countries.
Dr Ferreira’s background is in Science. As a white-lab-coat researcher, she completed her Ph.D in Genetics in 2012 with the dissertation: “Contribution of Population Genetics to the Investigation Efforts on Wildlife Trafficking in Brazil: Development of Microsatellites and Analysis of the Genetic Structure of Paroaria dominicana and Saltator simiis (Aves: Passeriformes: Thraupidae)”. Her main goal in this area is to produce high quality scientific data which can be used in issues involving wildlife trafficking, its prevention and mitigation of its impacts. Her greatest scientific passion is the use of Forensic Science in the prosecution of wildlife related cases, and this is why she has gone to the US Fish and Wildlife Service National Forensics Laboratory to learn about Wildlife Forensics, first as a volunteer and later as a visiting scientist, to develop research in collaboration between 2005 and 2013.
Before creating Freeland Brasil, Dr Ferreira has volunteered (2007-2014) for the organization SOS Fauna, a beacon of the fight against wildlife trafficking in Brazil. With the organization, she joined the police in raids intended to seize illegally traded wild animals (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WvmOO-bR2cw), in which the team developed actions with the Police aiming at bringing down wildlife trafficking criminal organizations, as well as helped officers on the ground to identify the species of illegally owned or traded animals (for example, hybrids are allowed to be kept and bred, while wild species and threatened wild species have higher levels of protection). They also provided necessary care to the animals in the post-seizure period to decrease death rate and enhance their chances of being rehabilitated and even reintegrated to nature. With SOS Fauna Dr Ferreira also took part in the rehabilitation and responsible releases of rehabilitated animals back in the wild (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IHcrcgMkW8o).
Lastly, because of the unique and pioneer character of her Ph.D research in Brazil, which united field work, on-the-ground work with the Police, and genetics laboratory work to analyze issues involved in wildlife trafficking, and due to her ideas on how to combat wildlife trafficking in different fronts in South America, Dr Ferreira was nominated a 2009 TED Fellow and 2010-2012 TED Senior Fellow and she gave a talk on the 2010 TED Conference which was posted on TED.com: http://www.ted.com/talks/juliana_machado_ferreira.html. She was also laureate a 2014 National Geographic Emerging Explorer: http://video.nationalgeographic.com/video/explorers-project/141227-explorers-ferreira and http://video.nationalgeographic.com/video/ng-live/ferreira-birds-lecture-nglive
Her greatest passions are to spend time with her family, specially her husband and her two year-old daughter, to travel and see the world’s nature and biodiversity, to read, to swim and to practice Yôga.
http://www.nationalgeographic.com/explorers/bios/juliana-machado-ferreira/
http://www.ted.com/profiles/113826/fellow
www.freelandbrasil.org.br
http://www.scienceinschool.org/2012/issue24/juliana
http://www.popmatters.com/pm/feature/129455-why-the-caged-bird-sings/
http://www.oprah.com/blogs/One-Womans-Fight-to-Keep-Brazils-Wild-Birds-Aloft
http://womeninbusiness.about.com/od/joe-hefferon-series/a/Profile-Of-Brazilian-Biologist-and-Angel-Juliana-Machado-Ferreira-Phd.htm
http://www.laurelneme.com/index.php/the-wildlife-radio-show/264-brazil-illegal-bird-trade-juliana-machado-ferreira
http://www.ozy.com/rising-stars/juliana-machado-ferreira-wildlife-trafficking-warrior/33115
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