Alpina Begossi

Biography

Alpina is an ecologist specialised in Fisheries and in Human Ecology, who is researcher at the Training programme and research of small scale fishers (CAPESCA) and Nucleous of Food Studies (NEPA) at UNICAMP, Professor at UNISANTA, and Research Director of Fisheries and Food Institute. With a PhD in ecology and a post doc in ecological economics, Alpina has been researching fisheries of the Atlantic Forest coast and of the Amazon in Brazil for more than 25 years. She studies fisheries on the research themes of ecological models (optimal foraging theory), ethnobiology, reef fisheries and food security. The majority of Alpina's work is carried out in Brazil where she is the principal investigator of the project Ecology and Ethnoecology of dusky groupers (Epinephelus marginatus), a widely distributed species in the Atlantic caught frequently in Brazilian artisanal fisheries where it is a highly prized fish. Currently she is involved in a collaborative project with the University of York, United Kingdom, on technology of small-scale fishers of Maranhão in north-eastern Brazil. In addition to being a member of the ecoSERVICES Scientific Steering Committee, Alpina recently contributed to the work of the United Nations' Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) in the FAO Fisheries and Aquaculture Technical Paper on Fishers’ knowledge and the ecosystem approach to fisheries - Applications, experiences and lessons in Latin America (2015). She was the President of the Society of Human Ecology in 2006-2007, and Executive Director of the Fisheries and Food Institute from 2006-2014.

Research Interest

Fisheries, Human Ecology, Management, Ethnobiology, Small-scale artisanal fisheries