Microgrants for Sustainable Tourism

Germaynee is an environmental engineer, with an Erasmus Mundus Masters degree in Management of Waters and Coasts. She is an associate member of the Society of Tourism Researchers of Chile (SOCIETUR) and is currently the Portal Communities Strategy Coordinator for the protected areas of Chilean Patagonia. Her work seeks to strengthen the link between communities and protected areas in 26 different municipalities in Patagonia.

Germaynee has also held various scientific research positions related to territorial planning in the region. She has 16 years of experience working on projects that include the management of protected areas, the management of tourism in protected areas, biodiversity conservation, participatory management of natural resources, territorial planning, science education, and rural development.

She has worked in the Magallanes and Chilean Antarctic Region for 13 years, leading interdisciplinary teams consisting of public and private actors, especially in Torres del Paine National Park.

Silvia currently works as Freshwater Manager for The Nature Conservancy (TNC) in Latin America. She has spent more than 20 years working in biodiversity conservation and natural resource management, with a special emphasis on water resources. She joined TNC in 2001 to work on conservation planning, natural resource management, nature-based solutions, and financial sustainability for conservation. Initially, she began working for the TNC Program in Ecuador, but later expanded her role to work throughout the Latin America region. She comes to us with extensive experience working collaboratively with different key actors, including local communities, governments, national and international organizations, the private sector, and academia.

Silvia studied Environmental Sciences at the Universidad San Francisco de Quito, and holds a master’s in environmental management from Yale University. She actively participates in various women's groups that promote gender equality, diversity and inclusion, and is the founder of “Mujeres por el Agua”, a group of women from Ecuador that promotes the restoration of its rivers.

María José leads the biotic area of environmental unit for the Council of Atacameño People – part of the indigenous people’s development in Atacama la Grande. In her career, she has worked as an environmental analyst and consultant for indigenous communities, evaluating the environmental impact of large lithium extraction and metal mining companies.

María José’s professional interests are conservation, environmental management, education, and community participation. She has served as project manager for environmental monitoring projects, where she has worked within the framework of the Open Standards for Conservation, integrating the Internet of Things and community participation.

She holds a Magister degree and is a Doctoral candidate (c) in Biological Sciences with an Ecology focus, and has her Bachelor of Biological Sciences from the Pontificia Universidad Católica. During her academic career she has taught various courses in her specialty, promoting new tools and learning dynamics in Chile. She has worked on research related to ecological physiology with a specific focus on the effects of climate change on organisms and natural populations.