People

Mar Cabeza is an established PI at the University of Helsinki leading the “Global Change and Conservation” team. After completing her PhD at the University of Helsinki, MC conducted a postdoc at the Biodiversity and Global Change lab in Spain. She then returned to Helsinki to establish her own research team. Most of the research projects that MC currently leads fall under the conservation effectiveness umbrella, by which she attempts to address both ultimate and proximate causes of success and failure of conservation actions. Her current research interests include basic field ecology needed to understand processes at local scales, large scale macroecological studies involving projections of climate change, and the integration of these in conservation assessments and planning. Mar also has passion for education. She is involved in education initiatives at a variety of levels, from school children to advanced PhD students. She is especially interested in capacity building in developing countries. This education passion is also shared by other members of the team.

Daniel Burgas is a university lecturer in environmental biology. He is motivated by applied ecology questions, and by finding approaches that help people make more sustainable decisions. Much of his recent research examines how multiple uses of forests and biodiversity can be better reconciled.

Currently, he is part of two projects. The  project provides knowledge to help Finnish forest sector become more just and sustainable. The project “” (Metsästä buustia hyvinvointiin ja terveyteen) links forest characteristics to human health and well-being, and eventually assesses the economic costs/savings from forests around human settlements.

He has also worked in tropical systems, wetland birds, human-wildlife interactions and pastoral systems

He mainly teaches within the .

• Sustainable forest use
• Environmental policy and governance
• Social-ecological systems
• Nature-based solutions

Tiago Monteiro-Henriques completed his PhD in native vegetation at the Universidade de Lisboa, Portugal, in 2010. He is a postdoctoral researcher since 2017 (FCT grant ref: SFRH/BPD/115057/2016; 2017-2023), based at the Universidade de Trás-os-Montes e Alto Douro, but in association with GCC Lab, where he conducts short-term stages. He has a background in native vegetation and landscape research with particular interest in numerical analysis and classification of vegetation data, flora and vegetation mapping, ecological modelling, nature conservation, and ecological restoration.
His current research activities focus on native forests from the Iberian Peninsula and aim to create i) a general systematization of forest types using combinatorics and optimization; ii) spatially explicit models of their potential and actual distributions; iii) an endangerment assessment of those forest types, linked with fire patterns and global changes and iv) disseminate all of the produced information on the web along with specific tools to support management and conservation actions and respective prioritization.

• Native forests conservation
• Vegetation classification
• Vegetation modelling and mapping

Pablo Manzano completed a PhD in Ecology and the Environment in 2015 at the Universidad Autónoma de Madrid, researching seed dispersal ecology in Spanish sheep-grazed rangelands. Since finishing his MSc in 2004, he has been working first on his PhD field work and then in a series of international development initiatives that took him from the Western Balkans to two global positions in IUCN in Nairobi and in FAO in Rome, both related to pastoralism. In these years he has kept his research agenda on rangeland ecology but expanded into other disciplines of the pastoralist domain, including economics, sociology and anthropology. His research approach aims to integrate the social, economic and environmental livelihood dimensions. He is currently a HELSUS fellow addressing global pastoralism sustainability.

• Rangeland ecology
• Pastoralist systems

Karolina Lukasik is a postdoctoral researcher in the Helsinki Urban Rats Project, where she studies the conflicts between the gardeners and non-human animals in urban allotment gardens. She completed her PhD in psychology at Åbo Akademi University and then conducted postdoctoral research at SWPS University of Humanities and Social Sciences in Warsaw, Poland, in the project “Whom to trust? Cognitive determinants of learning from others”. She also graduated from the School of Ecopoetics, where she researched the history of laboratory rats. Karolina is especially passionate about the animals that we label as “pests” and building biocentric, multispecies communities.

• Urban ecology
• Environmental humanities
• Posthumanism
• More-than-human conflicts

Moustapha Itani is a doctoral researcher specializing in interdisciplinary environmental research with a focus on socioecological systems. With a passion for project ideation and development, he thrives in collaborative settings, uniting diverse perspectives to create innovative solutions. His academic journey from Lebanon to Finland reflects his dedication to global and local conservation efforts and fostering cross-cultural dialogue. While his PhD bridges ecological sustainability, biodiversity, and pastoral governance, his broader research explores sustainable living and conflict resolution in multicultural urban as well as rural settings. Beyond his discipline, Moustapha has contributed to research in media studies, mental health and public health highlighting his commitment to addressing complex societal challenges.

• Vegetation Science
• Pastoral Governance
• Functional ecology
• Biodiversity Conservation

Federica Manca is interested in how species interact in coastal marine ecosystems, and in how biotic interactions modulate the response of marine ecosystems to climate change. She completed her MSc in Marine Biology in Italy in 2016 with a thesis on coral-associated fauna in the Maldives, and in the following years worked on different research projects in Japan and Italy. Her PhD research focuses on marine vegetated ecosystems in the Baltic Sea, where she uses ecological network analysis to explore the web of interactions between marine macrophytes (macroalgae and seagrasses) and their associated fauna, and to model how macrophyte-dominated communities will shift under future scenarios of climate change. She is also a member of the at Tvärminne Zoological Station.

• Marine ecology
• Ecological modeling

Francisco dos Reis Silva is a PhD researcher in the . He is passionate about conservation biology and herpetofauna and did his master’s thesis on amphibian and reptile diversity across agricultural landscapes in Guinea-Bissau, West Africa. For his PhD, he is building on the same topic, investigating how different types of oil palm plantations—traditional and industrial—affect herpetofauna communities in Liberia, and how these compare to old-growth forest. Furthermore, he will explore the snake-human conflict in these plantations, looking at how snakes are perceived and how that affects snake communities, and whether oil palm plantations increase the risk of snake-bite envenoming, a high-priority tropical disease, as classified by the WHO. 

• Conservation biology
• Community Ecology
• Herpetology
• Agroecology 

Mihika Sen is a PhD researcher in the . Her research primarily focuses on mitigating negative human-elephant interactions across Asia and Africa. She completed her Master's degree in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at the University of Helsinki, conducting her Master's thesis on the social and ecological effectiveness of electric fencing as a mitigation tool against crop-raiding elephants in Laikipia county, Kenya. For her PhD, she will be studying individual-level variations in the crop raiding behaviour of Asian elephants in Assam, Northeast India. She will also investigate shared local knowledge and perceptions of farmers in Assam towards elephant behaviour. The overall aim of the project is to develop an adaptable and sustainable individual-level crop raiding mitigation framework, balancing the needs of both elephants and local communities. 

• Conservation biology
• Elephant behaviour and conservation 
• Human-wildlife interactions
• Community-based conservation 

Cindy Schwenk is a PhD researcher in the and works for the Finnish , which funds her PhD.

In her research, she is looking at the breeding and movement ecology, as well as various conservation challenges, related to the Finnish wild forest reindeer (Rangifer tarandus fennicus). More specifically, she is looking at their post-calving habitat use in the two Finnish populations at different spatial scales. Additionally, she will investigate the influence of predation on their habitat use and small-scale movement. Ultimately, she will also try to assess the risks and feasibility of a potential reintroduction of this near-threatened subspecies to a new area in eastern Finland, with the help of local and traditional knowledge. 

She has worked with these animals already in the past, during her Master’s in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology (EEB) at the University of Helsinki. Boreal and arctic ecosystems, as well as their species, are of special interest to her. Especially large, cold-adapted mammals fascinate her. Another interest of hers is applied conservation, and recently, she has also been learning about the value of local and traditional knowledge in science and conservation.

• Habitat selection  

• Movement ecology 

• Conservation reintroductions 

• Habitat restoration/rewilding 

• Finnish Wild Forest Reindeer 

• Local and Traditional Knowledge 

Samuel Awini is a conservation biologist and PhD researcher in the . He holds a BSc and MSc in Conservation Biology from Ghana and France, respectively.  

His PhD examines whether African elephants act as climate allies by shaping carbon stock dynamics in tropical ecosystems. In collaboration with African Parks, he combines dietary metabarcoding of forest and savanna elephants across four African countries with camera trapping, non-invasive DNA sampling, dung count surveys, vegetation surveys, plant trait analysis, and remote sensing, along with two decades of human elephant conflict records from Ghana. These approaches allow him to assess whether elephant foraging promotes carbon dense tree species and to identify where climate mitigation and conflict reduction can align. 

• Megaherbivore 

• Climate change  

• African Elephant DNA 

• Human elephant conflict

Kasper Mickos is a PhD researcher in the . He endeavors to create comprehensive, multidisciplinary understanding and solutions for conservation challenges like human-wildlife conflicts. Studying very broadly, he has delved into the ecological, geographical and human dimensions of conservation. He is also passionate about science communication and inspiring the next generation, reflected in his teacher studies and work experience. 

In his PhD, he looks to advance our understanding on the conflicts and coexistence between humans and large carnivores. Focusing on the brown bear, he strives to understand how the fear of humans affects the behaviour of carnivores and what implications this has for coexistence. Moreover, he is evaluating what methods are currently used and developing new solutions to facilitate human-carnivore coexistence in a time when increasing populations of large carnivores pose new challenges for carnivore conservation. 

• Human-carnivore coexistence 

• Brown bear 

• Fear ecology 

Lisa Treiber is a PhD researcher in the and passionate about mammal behaviour and acoustic communication. Conducting her master thesis research in Bethlehem, South Africa, she was able to show that female lion roars contain information about the individual calling. Building on this foundation, her PhD research continues in the field of bioacoustics, where she is investigating acoustic signalling in mammalian species with a focus on the Eurasian lynx (Lynx lynx). Going from an individual level to community dynamics, she will look at what vocalisations lynx use in the wild, exploring individual, sex and age differences as well as geographic variation. Additionally, she will focus on investigating how effectively lynx use their habitat for sound propagation, how human modification affects their calling behaviour, and how other species respond to their calls. Her PhD research is conducted in close collaboration between the GCC lab and the led by Dr. John Loehr. 

• Mammal behaviour
• Eurasian lynx
• Acoustic signaling
• Bioacoustics
• Interspecies communication 

Lucas Bogaert is a PhD researcher in the . His research primarily focuses on human-carnivore interactions and biocultural conservation. He completed my BSc in Biology at the University of Barcelona (UB) and MSc in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at the University of Helsinki (UH), with experience in ecology, conservation genetics and social-ecological systems in Spain, Madagascar, Finland and Kenya. 

With his PhD, he aims at understanding changes in the use of carnivore skins in a cultural ceremony from the Daasanach community in East Africa. To do so, he is using an interdisciplinary approach, combining genetics with social science methodologies. 

• Biocultural conservation
• Human-wildlife interactions
• Conservation genetics 

Clara Martinez Soares is a doctoral researcher in the Environmental Science and Technology Doctoral Program at ICTA-UAB (Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona), conducting her project within IEK-CHANGES () led by Álvaro Fernandez-Llamazares, GCC alumni and long-term collaborator of the GCC lab. Her thesis is also co-supervised by Mar Cabeza. Her research explores the links between changes in Indigenous Environmental Knowledge (IEK) and biodiversity loss. She works in close collaboration with the Tsimane’, an Indigenous people from the Bolivian Amazon, and uses participatory and arts-based methods—such as music, photovoice, and futures thinking—to better understand their perceptions and interpretations of IEK and environmental changes over time.

Previously, she has studied non-human primate behaviour and conservation, which highlighted for her the importance of integrating Indigenous knowledge and interdisciplinary approaches into biodiversity conservation. Only through such integration can we achieve meaningful biocultural conservation and restore ecosystems sustainably.

• Indigenous environmental knowledge
• Biocultural conservation
• Multiple evidence base approach
• Interdisciplinary methods

Miia Farstad is a PhD researcher in the . She completed her master’s degree in Geography at the University of Helsinki, with her thesis focusing on impact of biotic interactions on the distribution of arctic and alpine plants in Fennoscandia. In addition to geography, she has especially studied biology and geoinformatics. Since graduating, she has worked in areas such as climate change mitigation, hazardous wrecks, and geoinformatics. In her doctoral research, she combines this diverse background with a focus on marine environments. Her research aims to develop GIS tools and methodologies for integrating marine social-ecological models in a digital twin framework. She will also examine how GIS-based tools can improve decision-making in marine conservation and management. She also works as a Research Scientist at the Finnish Geospatial Research Institute (FGI).

• Social-ecological systems modelling
• Marine conservation
• Marine spatial planning 
• Digital twins

Amaia Gonzaga Roa is an early-career researcher interested in interdisciplinary approaches within conservation science. She studied an Environmental Biology Bachelor's degree at the Autonomous University of Barcelona, and a Master's degree in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at the University of Helsinki. She developed her Masters thesis by applying counterfactual theory to quantitative GIS methodologies, in order to assess the conservation effectiveness of seven Biosphere reserves in the Western Amazon. She has also worked within projects studying Indigenous governance systems in the Brazilian Amazon, citizen science approaches and alpine and subarctic plant community studies in Fennoscandia.

She is interested in human-landscape relations, mountain ecosystems, spatial ecology and the applications of geospatial and field-based methodologies towards building ecological and conservation science projects that integrate local knowledge systems, and contribute to imagining and developing coexistence scenarios.  Her current research project aims to reconstruct the historical wild forest reindeer (Rangifer tarandus fennicus) habitats of Finland, through the geospatial analysis of place names.

• Local and Traditional Knowledge
• Geospatial methodologies
• Spatial ecology

Maurits van Eeden is a student in the Master’s programme in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology. He is interested in the ecology and behaviour of mammals, with a particular interest in understudied behaviours and how animals respond to environmental challenges. He is currently developing his master’s thesis, where he plans to investigate thermoregulatory behaviour in zebras and other large herbivores in Kenya.

Nina Holmlund is Master's student in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at the University of Helsinki. Her research interest focuses on carnivores, particularly understudied mesocarnivores and their ecology in human-modified landscapes. For her master's thesis, she compares the roles of large carnivores and mesocarnivores in human–wildlife conflict using an interdisciplinary approach that combines ecological field methods with social surveys. During her studies, she has gained extensive fieldwork experience across diverse ecosystems, from Nordic forest landscapes to the sub-Saharan savannah.

• Jasmine Vaittinen
• Leire Borge

A few former GCC members have remained strongly associated to the group after they have taken up new positions. They are core collaborators particularly for our projects in Kenya and Madagascar, often joining our expeditions and co-supervising our students. 

Quite a number of researchers, assistants and visitors have shared their time and contributions with GCC, making this group what it is today.

PhD and Licenciate researchers

Postdoctoral Researchers

MSc students

Visiting scholars, research assistants and interns