Coordination and secretary

This body is responsible for overall planning, ensuring coordination between the various areas of work, and overseeing the fulfilment of institutional objectives. It also coordinates decision-making processes, promotes the active participation of members, and maintains open communication between the different levels of the organisational structure. Members from different countries reinforce the collaborative, multi-level and cross-jurisdictional approach that characterises our network.

Francisco Andrés Carabelli

He holds a degree in Forestry Engineering from the National University of La Plata, as well as a PhD in Forest Sciences from the Faculty of Forest Sciences at Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich. He is currently based at the Institute of Land Use Planning and Nature Conservation.

He currently lectures in Forest Management, Biodiversity and Conservation on the Forestry Engineering degree programme at the Esquel Campus of the Faculty of Engineering at the National University of Patagonia (Chubut province). Until 2006, he worked as a researcher for the National Scientific and Technical Research Council (CONICET) of Argentina.

Between 2004 and 2007, he was a visiting lecturer on the PhD Programme in Biodiversity at the Ibero-American Centre for Biodiversity at the University of Alicante in Spain. As a postgraduate lecturer, he also taught on the Master's in Forest Health Management programme at the Faculty of Engineering. From 1990 to the present, he has led more than twenty projects funded by national and international grants.

For 14 years, he was a member of the Andean-Patagonian Forestry Research and Extension Centre, where he headed the Environmental Management Department between 1999 and 2005. Between 2017 and 2019, he was elected National Coordinator of the Argentine Network for Forest Science and Technology (REDFOR.ar), whose Board of Directors comprises CONICET, the National Institute of Agricultural Technology (INTA), the National Institute of Industrial Technology (INTI) and the six national universities offering undergraduate and postgraduate forestry courses, of which he is currently a member.

He was elected Dean of the Faculty of Engineering in 2017, a position he held until 2021. At the Esquel Campus, he has been a member of the Executive Council of the Centre for Integrated Environmental Studies, which reports to the Faculty of Engineering, since 2013.

E-mail:

francisco.carabelli@gmail.com

ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8114-5580

Sandra Rodríguez Piñeros

She has over 20 years of international experience in forest management and the social aspects of forests. She has worked for the governments of Colombia and Mexico, various non-governmental organisations, and in academia. She is currently a lecturer at the Autonomous University of Chihuahua (UACH) in Mexico, as well as being a member of the IUFRO Executive Board.

She holds a Forestry Engineering degree from the Francisco José de Caldas District University in Colombia, a Master's degree in Forest Sciences specialising in forest economics from Oklahoma State University (OSU), and a PhD in Environmental Sciences specialising in forest management, also from OSU. Her doctoral thesis, 'The Role of Analysis and Deliberation in Changing Community Preferences for Sustainable Forest Management Strategies and Indicators', won the OSU Institute of Environmental Research's Prize for the Best Doctoral Thesis in 2009 and the IUFRO Outstanding Doctoral Research Award in 2014. She has received the ITTO Freezailah Fellowship twice (in 2001 and 2021) and the Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz Award in 2024, as well as the 2025 Outstanding Female Academic Award from the Autonomous University of Chihuahua.

She coordinated the IUFRO-IFSA Joint Working Group on Forestry Education from 2016 to 2024, and participated in the 2022 IUFRO, FAO and ITTO Global Assessment of Forestry Education, acting as the lead assessor for Latin America and the Caribbean.

E-mail: spineros@uach.mx

ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6698-6894

Coordinators

María Isabel Delgado

She is a researcher at the National Scientific and Technical Research Council (CONICET) and a lecturer in the Faculty of Agricultural and Forestry Sciences at the National University of La Plata (UNLP) in Argentina.

She has an undergraduate degree in Forestry Engineering and has completed postgraduate studies in University Teaching at UNLP. She also holds an MSc in Integrated Watershed Management and a PhD in Engineering, both from the National University of Rosario.

She specialises in watershed management, including analysing the quality of surface and groundwater, as well as hydrological modelling and using geographic information systems, mainly in relation to mountain and lowland watersheds in central-eastern Argentina.

She has also held management positions within the university academic sector. She has published books and book chapters, as well as articles in nationally and internationally indexed journals. She has also made over 100 contributions to scientific events, has been involved in undergraduate and postgraduate teaching since 2012 and has led research and outreach projects since 2017. She also teaches postgraduate courses in Argentina and Brazil, and has participated in collaborative projects in the United States and India.

She is currently the coordinator of the Standing Committee on Education at the Argentine Network for Forest Science and Technology (REDFOR.ar), as well as being a member of the IUFRO-FAO Task Force on Scaling Up Science-Based Forest Sector Innovation.

E-mail: isabeldelgado@agro.unlp.edu.ar

ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5493-7462

Andrés Avella-Muñoz

He holds a degree in Forestry from the Francisco José de Caldas District University, a Master's degree in Environment and Development from the National University of Colombia's Institute of Environmental Studies, and a PhD in Science (Biology) from the same institution. He also specialises in environmental management and education, having obtained this qualification from the District University.

His professional career has focused on forest restoration and management with a particular emphasis on conservation and sustainable use. His research focuses on Andean vegetation in Colombia, covering topics such as floristic composition, ecosystem structure and architecture, and restoration processes.

He has published numerous articles in indexed journals, as well as books and book chapters on Andean forest ecology and his practical experience in forest restoration and management. His main areas of research include forest ecology, management and restoration.

He currently coordinates the Master's Programme in Forest Management, Use and Conservation and lectures in Forest Management and Planning at the Faculty of Environment and Natural Resources at the Francisco José de Caldas District University.

E-mail: aavellam@udistrital.edu.co

ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1595-1154

Secretaries