📋 Tender Overview
With the support of the Pronabec Continuity Scholarship, she became an engineer and now works in the registry of flora and fauna.In a world where science and environmental conservation are fundamental for the future of the planet, women play an important role. Alejandra Herrera Albarran knows this well, she is an environmental engineer and her passion for nature has led her to become a scientist who led research at the heart of the Manu Biological Station, an environmental research and conservation center located in the Manu Biological Reserve, in Cusco.
Her father, a photographer and nature journalist, was her greatest influence, as his work allowed her from a young age to learn more about the protected areas of Peru. However, his family life was affected by the pandemic, which put his university studies at risk. It was then that he decided to apply for the Continuity Scholarship of the National Program of Scholarships and Educational Credit (Pronabec) of the Ministry of Education, which was held in an extraordinary manner. Getting the scholarship was very important for me, it allowed me not only to continue but also to finish my studies successfully, says the young woman.
After graduating, Alejandra worked in spaces of high biological diversity such as the Manu Biological Station, where she carried out research on entomological fauna and its functionality in restoration projects. His work focuses on the observation and recording of flora and fauna, applying field methodologies to generate key data in decision-making for environmental management.
These last two investigations that I have carried out in Manu have had the objective of knowing how climate change is affecting insects and how in the future it can lead to bigger changes, such as their migration from hot places to colder places where these species did not exist before, and how this will end up affecting birds, mammals and other different taxa, he points out.
For the young scientist, female researchers are of utmost importance for the country, especially in a context in which mining and logging are reducing the Amazon. Women in the world of research are extremely valuable, we are people who not only have intellect and the ability to achieve many things, but together we can also do much greater things, she adds.
Alejandra was also one of the winners of the Botany and Entomology Research Training Grant awarded by the International Conservation Fund of Canada (ICFC), which trains select groups of Latin American students in a rigorous field program that allows them to obtain the necessary skills to build a network of scientists who can guide and train new tropical researchers.
Currently, the scholarship recipient leads research in the Shipetiari native community, located in the Manu Biosphere Reserve, to protect biodiversity from local communities. What I am doing is observing and studying how the members of the native community are revaluing their forest, moving away from destructive practices such as logging, with ventures that take advantage of the resources that their ecosystem gives them, points out the young researcher, who advises women to study science and realize their dreams.
Learn more about Alejandras story: https://youtu.be/fXOtJHiGpi8?si=GUV6vg9iwOnLPBTG
