Colombian Humboldt fellow starts climate protection project

An International Climate Protection Fellowship of the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation was granted to Jhoanata Bolivar Cardona to carry out research on “National carbon stocks of mangrove ecosystems in Colombia: capacity building for their inclusion in climate change mitigation strategies”. The research project is supported by the Theoretical Ecosystem Group led by Dr. Carlos Sierra. Starting in April 2015 the fellow will work almost one year in the development of a model for the estimation of carbon stocks in mangrove ecosystems at the national Colombian level. For this, Jhoanata Bolivar Cardona will use information on carbon stocks from inventory data previously collected by the researcher in permanent plots installed in mangrove’s forests of Colombia’s Caribbean and Pacific coasts. To complete this analysis and for contributing to increase the institutional capacity of Colombia in terms of climate change mitigation, the current technical capacity level of Colombia to include mangroves in climate change mitigation strategies will be identified.

Jhoanata Bolivar Cardona, scientist of the Research Center in Ecosystems and Global Change –Carbono & Bosques- in Colombia, has conducted studies about carbon stocks and carbon dynamic in mangrove ecosystems. She studied Forest Engineering at the Universidad Nacional de Colombia, holds a Master in Coastal and Estuarine Management from Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya, Spain and is candidate to M.Sc. in Forest and Environmental Conservation of Universidad Nacional de Colombia.

Germany’s International Climate Protection Fellowship Programme supports prospective leaders from non-European threshold and developing countries by enabling them to conduct a research-based project in cooperation with specialist colleagues in Germany. Funding is available for project proposals which address issues directly relating to climate protection as well as adaptation to climate change. The Alexander von Humboldt Foundation runs the program supported by the Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation, Building and Nuclear Safety (BMUB) and in cooperation with the Federation of German Industry (BDI), the Centre for International Postgraduate Studies in Environmental Management (CIPSEM) at Dresden International University, the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD), the Deutsche Bundesstiftung Umwelt (DBU), the Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ), and the Renewables Academy AG (RENAC).