Aurelio Ramos (USA 89-91) currently works as Director of The Nature Conservancy’s Northern Tropical Andes Conversation Programme, based in Colombia.

 

Aurelio previously worked at the Alexander von Humboldt Biological Research Institute and the Andean Development Bank (CAF).  

 

“I have always liked nature but it was whilst I was at UWC that I realised if I wanted to make a contribution, a big contribution, I would need to experience and understand as many different perspectives as possible.” recalls Aurelio.  

 

“I am currently working for one of the largest NGOs in the world, it is US based, but I work out of the Colombia office.  I manage projects in Colombia, Venezuela, Ecuador and northern Peru to converse the bio-diversity in this region.  As an organisation we manage a lot of projects which help the national parks in the tropical Andes become self sustainable.  Additionally we aim to generate economic incentives to private and communal land owners to minimize the negative impact of infrastructure development on bio diversity. I really enjoy the whole challenge of my work.

 

“I am very proud of my involvement in setting up a programme called Bio-Trade in the Andean region.  Bio-Trade promotes the development of sustainable projects and was a joint initiative between the United Nations office of Trade and Commerce (UNCTAD), the Andean Development Bank (CAN) and the Andean countries.  I developed and directed the model which was piloted in Colombia before being rolled out across the region.  The project was so successful I was asked to go to Africa to promote this model which later was replicated in Asia. The model has been adopted in a number of countries.

 

“I studied economics at University to help me understand how the world works.  Economics is one of the major motors driving decision making processes the world over and if you don’t understand it, you will not understand how decisions are made.  Once you understand, you are able to influence the decision making process and affect change. Later I did the connections with environmental economics and sustainable energy.

 

“UWC opened my eyes to a bigger world outside of Colombia and to the importance of having different views to build a common objective.  Also, to the role of leaders and the impact they have.  The world is currently lacking great leaders and for the international development agenda to succeed, it desperately requires a strong leader.  I am happy to play my role.

 

“Without UWC I would be more individually focused, and I may not even have chosen this career”.