Melissa is a Research assistant in the PeatSense project and PhD student in Human Geography at the University of Bristol. With a background in political ecology and biodiversity conservation, and governance in Latin America, particularly in the Amazon region. Her work centres on bringing Indigenous Peoples’ and local communities’ perspectives, knowledge, and priorities into nature conservation.
Melissa holds a bachelor’s degree in Social Management from the Pontifical Catholic University of Peru. Before coming to Oxford she had over five years of experience in project planning, monitoring, and evaluation, and mainstreaming the gender approach in sustainable agriculture, forest conservation and climate change adaptation projects. She was a Corporate Business Officer at Practical Action Latin America for the benefit of smallholder farmers in the Peruvian Amazon.
