Aina Brias Guinart
Aina Brias-Guinart (MSc in Environment and Development, 2014, Lancaster University) is interested in the social dimensions of conservation interventions.
Trained as a biologist at the University of Barcelona (2012), she soon became passionate about the intersection between environment and development. Her master thesis took her to Dhaka, Bangladesh (2014), where she experienced the challenges of doing research with uncertainty and working in a cross-cultural environment. Her restless attitude and her innate curiosity led her to live for nine months in the Dindéfélo community-managed natural reserve in Senegal (2015), where she coordinated a conservation education project. That allowed her to experience firsthand the complexities of “conservation interventions”, particularly those involving local communities.
In 2018, she became a PhD candidate at Helsinki University (Finland) and has the privilege to cycle to work every day. Her interdisciplinary research focuses on the links between education and biodiversity conservation. She is particularly interested in how conservation NGOs implement education programmes in rural communities in Madagascar and how they affect local cultures, environments and knowledge systems. She strives to promote ethical practices in concrete and meaningful ways when doing research, and to bridge the gap between academia and practice. What she loves most about her work is the joy of sharing meals while conducting long periods of research in Madagascar.
Since participating in GESA 2018, she has been embracing life in a slow, caring and present way. She enjoys cooking as an act of love, hiking to reconnect to nature and doing theatre as a creative way of self expression.
Aina, on Global change and Conservation
