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Raquel Henriques Ramalho Ribeiro

Raquel Henriques Ramalho Ribeiro

Communication Officer

Details
Position
Communication Officer
Member type
Administrative Staff
Degree
PhD
Address
CIBIO-InBIO, Universidade do Porto, Campus de Vairão, Rua Padre Armando Quintas, 4485-661 Vairão, Portugal & Parque de Serralves, Rua Bartolomeu Velho, 141, 4150-124, Porto, Portugal

My main area of interest has always been conservation biology. After graduating, I worked three year at the Portuguese Nature Conservation Institute on the Atlas of amphibians and reptiles of Portugal which provided me extensive contact both with the national species and the territory. This experience was absolutely structural both in my personal and professional life: I wanted to work with Portuguese species in Portugal and understand how the human alteration of the territory (habitat) affected the distribution of the species, particularly amphibians and reptiles. Thus, my PhD thesis, finished in 2011, explored the habitat fragmentation effects on the biodiversity, using herpetological communities as model groups. The metropolitan area of Porto was chosen as case study hence it presented several factors of fragmentation (urbanization, intensive agriculture and forestry) and hosts numerous species of the Portuguese herpetofauna (83% of the amphibians and 75% of the reptile species).

From the investigation done during the thesis I learned lots of things about conservation of amphibians and reptiles but the major conclusion for me was the perception that the Portuguese society needed wider environmental awareness, particularly considering biodiversity. So, it was time for a shift in my career and I started to look for opportunities in science outreach programs. At the time CIBIO-InBIO was starting a collaboration protocol with the Serralves Foundation aiming to do exactly that: bring to the Serralves’ public a schedule of breaking edge science communication, within biodiversity themes and from 2012 I was included on the team of this ongoing project.

 

 

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