Policy Mixes for Biodiversity Governance: Governing Colombia's Biocultural Diversity at the Nexus of Sectoral Policies
Understanding how diverse policymakers govern biodiversity and cultural diversity is critical for addressing environmental challenges. In my talk, I will focus on Colombia, explaining the evolution of six decades of biodiversity governance (1959–2018) by analyzing policy mixes, actor roles, and ecosystem management. I will demonstrate how biodiversity has been mainstreamed into sectoral policies, particularly at the nexus of climate change and poverty, highlighting the need for effective coordination across sectors and actors. Additionally, I will explore Colombia’s biocultural diversity as a case study, showing how the synergies between nature-based and culture-based tourism offer a promising direction for ecotourism policies aimed at integrating biodiversity and cultural diversity. My research underscores the importance of integrating cultural and biological variables into tourism planning to create sustainable biocultural destinations that support both conservation and development goals, particularly in a megadiverse country like Colombia.
Alejandra Echeverri Ochoa is a biodiversity conservation scientist, professor, science communicator, and advocate for women, Latinx, and youth in STEM. Dr Echeverri’s research sits at the intersection of Neotropical ornithology, conservation psychology, environmental policy, and community ecology. Dr Echeverri’s lab integrates biological field work (such as bird surveys) with quantitative social surveys and qualitative content analysis to understand human relationships with nature. Specifically, she studies how people's behaviors towards the environment (such as habitat conversion) impact the species that live in such environments. She also studies peoples’ attitudes and behaviors towards biodiversity, and the interrelationships between nature and culture to advance the science on biocultural conservation. Her work is coproduced with local communities, governments, and policymakers to codevelop and inform environmental policies.
Echeverri is a National Geographic Young Explorer and a United Nations Youth advocate. Her work has been featured in The Washington Post, Forbes Science, Elle magazine Canada, Nature News and various newspapers and media outlets across the world. She was born and raised in the coffee-growing region of Colombia. Her experiences as a Latina in STEM who has held positions in the Norwegian Peace Corps, as an environmental consultant in Colombia, and as a scientist in Canada and the United States inform her practice as a conservation scientist and professor. She is committed to producing good science, training the next generation of conservation scientists, and codeveloping evidence-based policies with governments and local communities so that we can have a better world for people and for many other species with whom we share our planet.