Susana CÁRDENAS

Susana Cardenas is an ecologist and natural resource economist currently working as full-time professor, researcher and Director of the Institute of Applied Ecology at Universidad San Francisco de Quito, Ecuador.  She got her PhD in Ecology at UC Davis, it is a candidate MSc in Natural Resource Economics at UC Davis, and has an undergraduate degree in Finance at USFQ. Her long-term research goal is to integrate ecology, economics and environmental policy to promote sustainable development and management of key conservation areas.  Currently, her research is focused on two main topics: a) application of ecological modeling and economic valuation methods to the conservation of marine endangered species and ecosystem services, and b) tourism economics and monitoring of island ecosystems and protected areas. During the last 23 years, both research topics have been developed mainly in the Galapagos Islands working together with research and public institutions.  Susana has also coordinated and supervised various projects in protected areas in Ecuador and regionally in the Eastern Tropical Pacific, mainly focused on biodiversity and ecosystem services monitoring, evaluation of protected area management, and spatially explicit prioritization of key areas.  Susana co-led the scientific team that analyzed and presented the proposed scenarios that inform the Ecuadorian government decision to declare the new open-water Hermandad Marine Reserve in 2022. She was part of the team that consolidated the innovative financial mechanism that resulted in the Galapagos Life Fund, that will guarantee long-term financial sustainability for the management and conservation of the two marine reserves in Galapagos.  Susana serves currently as the Co-chair of this fund.