CSF Staff
John Reid
CSF Founder & President, Sebastopol, California
John has worked in conservation since 1991, promoting the use of economics to address conservation challenges. John has pursued that goal through an innovative training program and by the example of practical, policy-relevant analyses on a number of themes in the Amazon, Central America and the Brazilian Atlantic Forest. These issues include energy and transportation infrastructure, logging, ranching, protected areas and agriculture, among others. John founded Conservation Strategy Fund in 1998 after positions with Resources for the Future, Conservation International and Pacific Forest Trust. He designed CSF as an independent technical organization with the aim of spreading economics skills among conservation professionals. John’s work has appeared in many CSF publications, in Scientific American, Conservation Biology, Environment, the Journal of Political Economy, Megadiversidade and Ambio. He speaks Portuguese and Spanish, and holds a Masters in Public Policy from Harvard University.
Fernanda Alvarenga
Brazil Research Analyst, Lagoa Santa, Brazil
Fernanda joined CSF as a research analyst in July 2010. She has experience in financial analysis of projects, financial and process management, and in systems implementation management. She has a degree in Business Administration from PUC Minas, a masters degree in Globalization, Spatial Dynamics and Sustainable Development in Southern Countries from the University of Paris-Sorbonne (Paris IV) and graduate degrees in Business Economics from PUC/MG and in Socio-Educational Projects Management from UNA/MG. Fernanda started in CSF in 2008 as a consultant working in projects related to rural credit in the Amazon and the financial feasibility of fish processing by local fishermen in the Corumbau Extractive Reserve, in Bahia. She has previous experience as a management and economics consultant and analyst at PUC Minas. She was born in Belo Horizonte, Minas Gerais.
Marcos Amend
Brazil Executive Director, Lagoa Santa, Brazil
Marcos Amend is the Director of CSF-Brazil. He holds a Masters degree in Economics and Forest Policy from UFPR (Federal University of Parana - Brasil) and has been working in conservation since 1987. Before joining CSF, Marcos was the president of the Speleological Studies Group, an organization dedicated to the study and conservation of Brazilian caves. Additionally, Marcos coordinated the development of a "Producing Forest Program" which gained national and international recognition, and managed the field Ecotourism Program for the Sustainable Development reserve of Mamirauá in the Amazon. More recently, was the coordinator of the MPE Ecotourism Program of Brazilian Biodiversity Fund. Marcos was a student in CSF's 2001 Brazil course and then attended CSF's first advanced course in the Pantanal Wetlands in 2002. He is originally from Paraná, in southern Brazil.
Cynthia Bomtempo Franco
Brazil Financial Manager, Lagoa Santa, Brazil
Cynthia joined CSF-Brazil at the end of 2008 as the Financial and Administrative Manager of the Brazil Program. She has a degree in Systems Analysis from UNA/MG, a postgraduate degree in Direct Marketing from ABMD/SP and MBAs in Business Management from FGV/MG and in Controlling from UFMG/MG. She has several years of experience in direct marketing and in administrate and financial management in international NGOs. She is a native from Minas Gerais.
Kim Bonine
Training Director, Arcata, California
Kim joined CSF in 2001 after three years with the Center for Environmental Science and Policy at Stanford University. Her work with Stanford focused on ecological and economic research in the mangrove forests of Kosrae, Micronesia. She has also studied the impact of forest habitat fragmentation in Mexico and worked on community development strategies for poverty alleviation with the World Bank in Zimbabwe. Kim holds a Master of Science degree in Earth Systems and an undergraduate degree in Human Biology, both from Stanford University.
Irene Burgués Arrea
BUILD Program Operations Manager, San José, Costa Rica
Irene Burgués Arrea managed a successful CSF program on integrating biodiversity and infrastructure agendas in Central America from 2004-2007. The initiative contributed to: providing information on 400 infrastructure projects, generating consensus about analysis priorities and avoiding several poorly conceived projects, including roads in the Maya Forest region and the Tenosique dam on the Usumacinta River in Mexico. She then started an organic farm project and continues to tend to it. Most recently, Ms. Burgués had been researching payments for ecosystem services at CATIE. Ms. Burgués came back to CSF at the end of 2011 and is currently engaged in the Biodiversity Understanding in Infrastructure and Landscape Development (BUILD) program in the Albertine Rift, Andes and Amazon. Ms. Burgués has a BSc in Economics, Environment and Ecology from the University of York.
Holly Busse
Director of Finance, Arcata, California
Holly Busse joined CSF in 2006 as the Director of Finance and is responsible for overall financial management, fiscal planning, budgeting, reporting and accounting. She has 20 years of experience with accounting, contract and project management. Holly has a Bachelor of Science degree in Accounting and Finance and holds a Masters of Business Administration degree from Humboldt State University in California.
Conrad Gregory
Financial Assistant, Arcata, California
Conrad joined CSF in 2010 as Financial Assistant and is responsible for all financial areas of CSF, focusing on accounting, grants management, and personnel. He corresponds daily with each CSF location, including Bolivia and Brazil. Conrad came to CSF with 6 years of experience working in finance in various roles, and attained his Masters of Business Administration degree from Humboldt State University in 2009.
Courtney Lewis Cheng
Program Coordinator, Sebastopol, California
Courtney joined CSF in 2009 after 5 years of working as Program Assistant in the Biology Department at Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island. She holds a degree in Outdoor Experiential Education with a minor in Sustainable Development from Appalachian State University in North Carolina. She has many years of experience with computers and design, event planning, database management, and working for mad scientists.
Rocío del Pilar Moreno Sánchez
Senior Economist, Colombia
Rocío del Pilar Moreno Sánchez has been working for 15 years on issues related with the role of economic incentives, local resource users, and institutions for biodiversity conservation. She has conducted specific research on topics such as opportunity cost and economic valuation studies for payments for environmental services initiatives, adaptive capacity of resource-dependent communities at marine protected areas, economic valuation of protected areas, co-management of common-pool resources and conditional-transfer programs, among others. Rocio´s work has been published in several books and scientific journals such as World Development, Environment and Development Economics, Ecological Economics, Biodiversity Conservation and Gaceta Ecológica. She received her Masters of Science in Environmental and resource economics (Universidad de los Andes-University of Maryland) and her Masters of Science in Agricultural, Environment and Development Economics (Ohio State University).
Mônica Rocha
Brazil Administrative Assistant, Lagoa Santa, Brazil
Mônica joined CSF-Brazil in 2009 as the Administrative Assistant of the Brazil Program. Mônica has a graduate degree in Accounting from FAESA/ES and a posgraduate degree in Public Administration from FPL/MG. She has several years of experience as a teacher, as a social projects supervisor and in administrative and financial management in international NGOs. She is a native from Minas Gerais.
Thales Oliveira Rosa
Brazil Research Analyst, Lagoa Santa, Brazil
Thales joined CSF in August 2010. He has degree in Business Administration from UNA/MG, he is studying MBA in Project Management with emphasis in Environmental from Technological Education Institute (IETEC-MG). Thales has experience managing data used in market analysis for private companies. He also attended the training program for young entrepreneurs of NGO Junior Achievement, and participated in project monitoring routines in a logistics company at the Port and International Airport in Miami. He lived in USA for seven months and was born in Belo Horizonte, MG.
Cristian Vallejos
Latin America Director, Santa Cruz, Bolivia
Cristian has over 20 years of experience working in tropical conservation and sustainable development. He worked for Fundacion Amigos de la Naturaleza (FAN) and Proyecto BOLFOR in his native Bolivia. Before joining CSF, Cristian helped the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) -where he was regional director for the Americas- establish its network of national initiatives in Latin America. He also served as Amazon Conservation Association’s (ACA) first executive director for 4 years, guiding this organization to regional prominence in the southwestern Amazon. Cristian holds a degree in Social Anthropology from the Universidad Catolica in Lima, Peru and received training in resource economics and environmental policies at Duke University’s School of the Environment and at Indiana University’s Workshop in Political Theory and Policy Analysis.
Venetia Hargreaves-Allen
Research Fellow, Nassau, Bahamas
Venetia is conducting environmental economics research in the Bahamas in partnership with the Bahamas National Trust and The Nature Conservancy. This research follows successfully completion of doctoral research with CSF in Belizean marine protected areas. She was recently a visiting scholar with the Scripps Institution of Oceanography at the University of California, San Diego and with the Marine Biology department at the University of California, Santa Cruz. Prior to pursuing her PhD, Venetia conducted economic and ecological fieldwork in the Caribbean, Indonesia and the Indian Ocean, filmed and produced conservation films for audiences in Kenya and Indonesia, and was a researcher and writer for The Ecologist Magazine. She holds a Bachelors in Biological Sciences from Oxford University and a Masters and PhD in Environmental Economics and Politics from the Imperial College London.
CSF mission
The mission of Conservation Strategy Fund is to teach environmental organizations around the world to use economics and strategic analysis to conserve nature.
CSF e-newsletter
I want to know the latest conservation news, and hear about upcoming CSF projects and courses.
Upcoming CSF Courses
No upcoming courses. See archived courses.
