Junior researcher of the risk observatory of the Centre for Social Studies of the University of Coimbra. I am a technician in Environmental Engineering, also I have a pre-Bologna bachelor’s degree in biology (University of Magdalena Colombia with an outstanding thesis) and a master's degree in environmental studies at the University of Aveiro in Portugal (also with an outstanding thesis). Currently I am a PhD student of the program in Territory, Risk and Public Policies at the University of Lisbon. In addition, I have complementary education in taxonomy, scientific writing, languages, and photography. I have worked for 7 years in public and private entities in the analysis of socio-ecological systems, the improvement of environmental governance, and the evaluation of environmental impact. I was environmental manager of the municipal mayor's office of Madrid (Colombia) where we won different awards and recognitions, highlighting the regional award as the most sustainable municipality in 2017. I also carried out biodiversity inventories in tropical ecosystems, focused on bird conservation and ecosystem restoration. Parallel to my professional work, for 15 years I have actively participated in environmental associations, with emphasis on scientific and community participation in the production of environmental public policies and the democratic selection of the uses for territory. In 2015, I was co-founder of the Association for Territorial Defense, which today includes more than 20 researchers from different disciplines. With the association, we have achieved the recognition of new areas for environmental protection, effective public participation in environmental public policies, and environmental conservation against large infrastructure projects in Colombia. As a result of my experience, in 2019 I was a delegate as a representative of youth at the United Nations Conference on Climate Change (COP 25), during which, together with the Global Youth Climate Pact, we proposed alternatives for the conservation of wetlands in high Andean tropical systems. My current scientific interests are: i) Identifying the impacts of land take on ecological systems especially wetlands, ii) Improvement of environmental governance and especially territorial planning for the control of land take, and iii) The ecological risk assessment of the effects of the land use occupation, and their relationship with the intensification of the effects of climate change. My academic pathway can be divided into two interconnected stages. Between 2011 and 2015, my interests focused on conservation biology, mainly the ecology of birds and butterflies. During this period, I won an honorable mention from the national network of Colombian researchers and presented different scientific works at national and international conferences. Later in 2015, I won a scholarship for short studies at the Sao Paulo State University (Brazil), where my interest in geographic information systems and the design of public policies for environmental restoration and conservation was born. In 2016, I was part of the Research Group on Socioecological Systems for Human Well-being of the University of Magdalena (Colombia), where I participated in research projects analyzing socio-ecological systems and evaluating ecosystem services, in collaboration with other universities and research groups.