Matt Finer, Program Scientist, Biodiversity Program

Dr. Finer is a Project Scientist in CIEL's Biodiversity Program. The project focuses on protecting the primary forests, biodiversity, and indigenous territories in the Loreto Region of the Peruvian Amazon by promoting strategic planning at the regional and national levels. Specifically, he tracks and analyzes threats to the region that will likely trigger new deforestation events.

Prior to joining CIEL, Dr. Finer was Staff Ecologist at Save America's Forests for seven years. Here he worked exclusively on western Amazon conservation and science issues, visiting and working in the region for at least several months every year. Dr. Finer worked directly on a number of important conservation issues, most notably oil drilling and illegal logging conflicts in the Yasuni region of Ecuador. He also conducted original research and published a number of peer-reviewed papers regarding threats to the western Amazon, particularly from hydrocarbon activities. Dr. Finer also published a number of non-scientific pieces targeted to educating the general public about threats to Yasuni National Park and the greater western Amazon.

Finer received his Ph.D. from the School of Biological Sciences at Washington State University in 2003.

Dr. Finer can be reached at mfiner@ciel.org.