MAKING SCIENCE TOGETHER: The Role of Scientific Networks in the Amazon

Collaboration is crucial to science, as it brings together diverse perspectives, knowledge, and resources. In the Amazon region—home to the world’s greatest biodiversity, complex societies, vast urban centers, and a critical influence on the global climate—collaboration becomes even more essential.

This event will explore how scientific associations and networks foster collaboration and contribute to a deeper understanding and the sustainability of this vital biome, which is essential both to local communities and to the planet as a whole.

Join us to learn about the impactful work being carried out by the Association of Amazonian Universities (UNAMAZ), the Research Network for a Sustainable Economy in the Amazon (RESA), Tiputini Biodiversity Station, and the German-Brazilian Science and Technology Network (GERBRAS-Sciencenet).

-Brazilian Ambassador to Germany, Rodrigo Baena Soares

Scientific and Technological Cooperation for the Sustainable Development of the Amazon: UNAMAZ

-Prof. Dr. José Seixas Lourenço, President of UNAMAZ

Brazil–Germany Cooperation in the Implementation of Regional Projects: The UNAMAZ Strategic Plan 2025–2030

-Prof. Dr. Nazaré Imbiriba, Executive Secretary of UNAMAZ

UNAMAZ in the Context of the Amazon Cooperation Treaty Organization (OTCA)

-Dr. Angel Viloria, Coordinator of Science, Technology and Education at OTCA

General Considerations and Proposals for Discussion

-Ambassador Carlos Alfredo Lazary Teixeira

Institutional Presentation: RESA

-Pedro Zanetti, Land Use and Sustainable Agriculture Specialist.

Contributions of Cacao Farming to the Socio-Bioeconomy under Climate Change in the Amazon: Family Farmers in Agroforestry Adaptation for Sustainable Territorial Development

-Dr. Daniel Palma Perez Braga, Associate Professor, INEAF/UFPA

Living Laboratory of Agro-Extractivist Youth in the Lower Amazon

-Dra. Wandicleia Lopes de Sousa, Professor, UFOPA Campus Alenquer.

3:35 PM | COFFEE BREAK

Connecting Amazonian Frontiers: From the Brazilian Amazon to Yasuní through the Tiputini Living Lab

-Gonzalo Rivas Torres, Director of TBS, University San Francisco de Quito (USFQ)

GERBRAS-SCIENCENET and the Amazon Programme: Fostering German-Brazilian Scientific Cooperation

-Prof. Dr. Walter Leal Filho, Hamburg University of Applied Sciences.

Forest–Atmosphere Interactions and Their Impacts on Climate in a Changing Amazonia

-Dr. Eliane Gomes Alves, Max Planck Institute for Biogeochemistry.

Unraveling the Bioeconomy Approach in the Context of Amazonia

-Prof. Dr. Benno Pokorny, University of Freiburg.

Traditional Medicinal Plants as an Integral Part of Sustainable Development

-Prof. Dr. Serhat Sezai Çiçek, Hamburg University of Applied Sciences.

Implications of Geopolitical Regime Shifts for Land Use and Bioeconomy in the Amazon

-Prof. Dr. Jan Börner, University of Bonn, Institute for Food and Resource Economics & Center for Development Research

Law of the Sea and Protection of the Amazon: Why Does the Future of the Forest Also Depend on the Ocean?

-Giselle Amorim, Universität Hamburg

SPEAKERS

Dr. José Seixas Lourenço

PhD in Geophysical Engineering from the University of California, Berkeley. He served as Director of the Emílio Goeldi Museum (1982–1985) and President of the Federal University of Pará – UFPA (1985–1989). He was the founding President of the Federal University of Western Pará – UFOPA (2009–2013) and served as Director of the National Institute for Amazonian Research – INPA (1992–1995). Additionally, he held the position of Secretary for the Coordination of Amazonian Affairs at the Ministry of the Environment. For ten years (1987–1997), he was the President of the Association of Amazonian Universities (UNAMAZ). Since 2017, he has been the CEO of the BioTec-Amazônia Association, and since 2023, he has served as the Pro-Tempore President of UNAMAZ.

Dr. Nazaré Imbiriba

PhD and Master’s in International Law from the University of São Paulo. She conducted doctoral research at the Hague Academy of International Law in the Netherlands. She is a co-founder and the current Executive Secretary of the Association of Amazonian Universities (UNAMAZ) and a member of the interdisciplinary program “Trópico em Movimento” at the Federal University of Pará (UFPA). As a professor and researcher, she designed and led the “Amazonian Worlds” project, conducting research and training programs through international and interdisciplinary courses (2017–2019). Within the State Government of Pará, she held a position equivalent to State Secretary as the Coordinator for International Cooperation for Sustainable Development (CIDS). She served as a UNESCO consultant in Brazil for the implementation of the University for International Integration of the Afro-Brazilian Lusophony (UNILAB). Furthermore, she was the Secretary General of the Bolsa Amazônia Regional Consortium, involving cooperation among eight Amazonian countries. Her work is widely published in the fields of international cooperation and sustainable development, and she has received several national and international awards for her coordination of research and development projects.

Dr. Ángel Viloria Petit

Venezuelan entomologist, speleologist, and biogeographer. He graduated in Biology from the University of Zulia in 1991 and earned his PhD from King's College London, United Kingdom. He has served as a university professor, curator of biological collections, and editor of scientific journals. Currently, he is a researcher at the Center for Ecology of the Venezuelan Institute for Scientific Research (IVIC). Through his research, approximately 140 new species and subspecies have been discovered and identified. He is the author of over 320 scientific articles and 8 books, with his research published across the Americas, Europe, and Asia. In late 2019, Dr. Viloria was honored with a Visiting Professorship at the prestigious University of Cambridge for the 2019–2020 term. Since February 2025, he has served as the Coordinator for Education, Science, and Technology of the Amazon Cooperation Treaty Organization (ACTO) for a three-year mandate.

Carlos Alfredo Lazary Teixeira

Lawyer and retired career diplomat. He served as the Executive Director of the Amazon Cooperation Treaty Organization (ACTO) from 2019 to 2024. He was the Ambassador of Brazil to Ecuador (2015–2018) and to Peru (2011–2015). His previous diplomatic roles include Minister Counselor at the Embassy in Washington, D.C.; Deputy Consul General in Miami; and Head of the Political Section at the Embassy in Buenos Aires. He also served as Chargé d’Affaires at the Consulate General in Ciudad del Este and in Atlanta. At the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MRE), he was Head of the Trade Promotion, Fairs, and Tourism Division. In the Presidency of the Republic, he served as Deputy Chief of Protocol and Special Advisor to the Chief of Staff. He was a titular member of the Export Credit Guarantee Committee (COFIG) and an alternate member of the Foreign Trade Chamber (CAMEX). Additionally, he was a member of the Brazilian delegation to COP 15, 16, and 20 (UNFCCC) and participated in the negotiations for the Paraguay–Paraná Waterway. He is currently a Senior Fellow at Plataforma Cipó.

Prof. Dr. (mult.) Dr. hc (mult.) Walter Leal

Professor Walter Leal is a distinguished scholar in the fields of sustainability and climate change and currently holds professorial appointments at several European institutions, including the Hamburg University of Applied Sciences in Germany, Manchester Metropolitan University in the United Kingdom, Uppsala University in Sweden, and Merito University in Poland. His research focuses primarily on sustainable development and climate change, areas in which he has made significant global contributions. Professor Leal has an extensive publication record, with more than 800 academic works, including over 220 books and hundreds of peer-reviewed articles and book chapters. He is the founding editor of the International Journal of Sustainability in Higher Education and the International Journal of Climate Change Strategies and Management, and serves as editor of the Springer World Sustainability Series. He has also contributed to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) as Review Editor and Lead and Contributing Author. Throughout his career, he has coordinated or participated in more than 150 international research projects on sustainability, energy, and climate change, mobilizing substantial research funding and collaborating with organizations such as the European Union, the World Bank, UNESCO, and UNEP. His work has received numerous international awards and recognitions, reflecting his long-standing leadership in advancing sustainability science, climate change adaptation, and international academic cooperation.

Dr. Eliane Gomes Alves

Dr. Eliane Gomes Alves is a Project Leader in the Biogeochemical Processes Department at the Max Planck Institute for Biogeochemistry in Jena, Germany. She is part of the Amazon Tall Tower Observatory (ATTO), a major international research project supported by the Federal Ministry of Research, Technology, and Space (Germany), the Max Planck Society, and the Ministry of Science, Technology, and Innovation (Brazil). ATTO is one of the world’s leading platforms for investigating biosphere–atmosphere interactions in the Amazon rainforest. Dr. Gomes Alves completed her doctoral research at the National Institute for Amazonian Research (INPA) in Manaus, Brazil, and at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and the National Center for Atmospheric Research in the United States. Her research examines how tropical forests interact with the atmosphere, focusing on volatile organic compounds (VOCs). By studying VOC gas exchange across the soil–plant–atmosphere continuum, her work addresses mechanisms linking forest ecology, atmospheric chemistry, and climate dynamics. Understanding such mechanisms directly enhances predictions of Earth system responses and can inform decision-making for managing the Amazon amid environmental and climate change.

Prof. Dr. rer. nat. Benno Pokorny

Dr. Benno Pokorny holds a doctoral degree from the Faculty of Forest Sciences at the University of Freiburg in Germany. He worked as a postgraduate lecturer in socioeconomics at the Federal University of Rural Amazonia (UFRA) in Brazil and was a Senior Associate Researcher at the Regional Office of the Center for International Forestry Research (CIFOR) in Belém do Pará. Since 2003, Benno Pokorny has been Professor of Forestry and Rural Development at the Faculty of Environment and Natural Resources at the University of Freiburg. For three decades, he has been studying the role of smallholders and forests in the context of rural development in the tropics and subtropics of Latin America, Asia, and Africa, with a focus on the Amazon region since his first field visit in 1997. He has coordinated several international research and development projects on local development using interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary approaches. He has supervised over 200 scientific theses on this topic and published numerous scientific articles, books, and book chapters. From 2021 to 2025, he was on leave from the university to coordinate the bioeconomy portfolio for GIZ in Brazil. This included bilateral and global projects as well as partnerships with the private sector.

Prof. Dr. Serhat Sezai Çiçek

Dr. Serhat Sezai Çiçek studied Ph*rm*cy at the University of Innsbruck from 2002 to 2007. From 2007 to 2011 he pursued his doctoral studies in Pharmacognosy in the group of Professor Hermann Stuppner and in parallel absolved the Certificate of Advanced Studies in “Ethnobotany and Ethnomedicine” at the University of Zurich, Switzerland. He became a registered Pharmacist in 2011 and worked in the Hospital Ph*rm*cy Salzburg from 2011 to 2016, where he was heading the Quality Control department for the last two years. In 2016 he became a postdoctoral research associate at the Department of Pharmaceutical Biology at Kiel University, where he founded the Junior Research Group for Analytical Natural Product Chemistry in 2021. In September 2023, he obtained a professorship of Instrumental Bioanalysis at Hamburg University of Applied Sciences. His research interests are the identification, characterisation, and quantification of bioactive compounds from natural sources. In the last years, Prof. Çiçek focused on medicinal plants from the Amazon Region in collaboration with the universities of Amapá (Laboratory of Bioprospection and Atomic Absorption), Brasilia (Laboratory of Bioprospection) and Pará (Faculty of Veterinary Medicine), as well as the Brazilian Agricultural Research Cooperation (EMBRAPA, Ecoregional Research Unit) in Macapá. Prof. Çiçek has published more than 50 papers in national and international journals and discovered several new natural products of different compound classes, such as diterpenes, triterpenes, isoflavones, and phenolic acids.

Dr. Jan Börner

Dr. Jan Börner is a Professor for Economics of Sustainable Land Use & Bioeconomy at the University of Bonn, Germany. Between 2012 and 2017, he was Robert Bosch Junior Professor for Economics of Sustainable Natural Resource Use at the Center for Development Research (ZEF) in Bonn, where his work focused on the economic analysis and evaluation of tropical forest conservation policies. Before, he worked as a research associate at the Center for International Forestry Research (CIFOR) and the International Center for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT) based in Brazil, where he was involved in several global research projects on REDD+ and human environment interactions with a focus on the Amazon region. Jan’s current research agenda expands from national level environmental policy analysis towards the role of technology, global trade, and consumption patterns in affecting the provision of ecosystem services at landscape scale.

MsC. Giselle Amorim

PhD Candidate in International Law at the University of São Paulo (USP) and the University of Hamburg (Germany). Master's in International Relations at Federal University of Bahia(UFBA). Researcher in the Law of the Sea at the Center for Studies in International Courts of the University of São Paulo (NETI-USP) and the Center for Studies in Law of the Sea "Vicente Marotta Rangel" (CEDMAR-USP). Member of the Brazilian Institute for the Law of the Sea (BILOS). Legal Intern at the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea (ITLOS) (2025) (Hamburg, Germany). Founder at AMORIM Global. Lecturer and speaker.

Pedro Zanetti

Land Use and Sustainable Agriculture Specialist. Forest Engineer and Master in Sustainable Development practices from UFRuralRJ, with a one-year exchange at Van Hall Larenstein University of Applied Sciences (Netherlands). Over the past 10 years, he has managed projects related to conservation, sustainable management and production, and responsible sourcing of agricultural and forest commodities. He served as Senior Program Manager at the British Embassy, leading the UK-Brazil green and inclusive growth portfolio. With GIZ, he coordinated three bioeconomy projects focused on sustainable cacao value chains and diversified agroforestry systems in the Atlantic Forest and Amazon. At ICS, he is a Specialist in Land Use Transition, Food Systems, and Bioeconomy.

Dr. Daniel Palma Perez Braga

Associate Professor, INEAF/UFPA. Forest Engineer, Master and Doctor in Sciences with emphasis in Ecosystem Conservation from the University of São Paulo (ESALQ/USP). Regional Coordinator of the Pro-SEMEIA Training Program in Technical Assistance and Rural Extension for Agrarian Reform Settlements, contributing to the 2030 Agenda. Vice-Director of the Faculty of Rural Development (Facdes), UFPA. Within RESA, he serves as General Coordinator and Research Leader for Component CP-4: Public Policies for a New Forest Economy.

Dr. Wandicleia Lopes de Sousa

Professor, UFOPA Campus Alenquer. PhD in Environmental Sciences from UFOPA, with interdisciplinary background in Economics, Public Policy, Society, Environment and Quality of Life. Her work in teaching, research and extension focuses on community-based natural resource management, public policies, climate change and sustainability, with emphasis on traditional peoples and communities of the Amazon — including artisanal fishers, family farmers, extractivists, quilombolas and indigenous peoples. Within RESA, she serves as Research Leader for the project Living Laboratory of Agro-Extractivist Youth in the Lower Amazon.

Dr. Gonzalo Rivas-Torres

Gonzalo Rivas-Torres is an ecologist and Associate Professor at the Universidad San Francisco de Quito (USFQ), Ecuador, and Director of the Tiputini Biodiversity Station in the Yasuní Biosphere Reserve. His research focuses on tropical ecology, biological interactions, and conservation in two of the world’s most iconic systems: the Amazon and the Galápagos Islands.He holds a PhD in Wildlife Ecology and Conservation from the University of Florida and has over 20 years of field-based research experience. Rivas-Torres has published more than 70 peer-reviewed articles, including contributions to journals such as Science, Nature, and Nature Communications, and collaborates with global research networks including ForestPlots, ATDN, iDiv, and AmazonIA.

As Director of Tiputini, he leads over 70 active research projects and advances the Tiputini Living Lab, a platform integrating real-time biodiversity monitoring, emerging technologies, and community-based science. His work bridges field ecology, technological innovation, and international collaboration to better understand and conserve Amazonian ecosystems.

Event Venue & Nearby Stays

Embaixada do Brasil em Berlim, Wallstraße 57, Berlin, Germany

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