Doctoral researcher in sustainability transformations with a focus on indigenous knowledges, agroecology practices, native seeds protection and intellectual property law for protection of ancestral knowledges. Economics and political science background.

Hi! I am Marianna Birmoser Ferreira-Aulu, project researcher and doctoral student at the University of Turku (UTU), Finland. My long-term professional goal is to contribute to society by exploring innovative pathways towards just and sustainable futures. I intend to do this by producing high-quality scientific materials, by popularizing science to catalyze positive transformations, and by engaging with the civil society to collaborate with various stakeholders. During the past five years, I have been working as project researcher in two departments in the University of Turku: the Finland Futures Research Centre, and the Centre for Collaborative Research. I have been engaged with various projects in strategic foresight, futures literacy, sustainability and climate action, renewable energy, food research, and international collaboration. In addition to desk research, I enjoy doing workshop facilitation (have experience in Finland, Peru and Colombia). I have also been quite active in public speaking, by giving talks in various seminars and conferences. I also enjoy cooperating to developing the strategy of our own organization. I have represented UTU in international cooperation initiatives through international education services. Since the beginning of 2021, I have also been pursuing my doctoral degree in Futures Studies. The working-title of my dissertation is “Building a Strategic Roadmap for Ecologically Sound and Socio-politically supported Conservation of the Brazilian Amazonia”. The research takes into consideration the local socio-political dynamics, the uniqueness of its peoples and its biodiversity. I look at the conservation of Amazonia as a wicked problem that needs diverse set of actions to attempt to solve it. This research topic is a continuation, and expansion of my Master’s Thesis, where I explored futures scenarios for the Volta Grande do Xingu, the region most affected by the construction of the Belo Monte Dam, in the East of the Brazilian Amazonia.

Abraham is currently pursuing his PhD as a doctoral researcher at the Centre for Environmental and Respiratory Health Research (CERH), Research Unit of Population Health, Faculty of Medicine, University of Oulu with support from Finnish government’s Planetary Health, Sustainability Transformations Doctoral Education Pilot (SusTra) program. Abraham intends to demonstrate synergistic vulnerabilities between infectious tropical diseases with climate change including correlation of ambient air pollutant (PM2.5, VOCs, Radon gas) with seasonal peaks in hospital visits/admissions for ARDS, Asthma and COPD exacerbation. Abraham also has in-depth interest in social and non-biomedical determinants of health including preparation and presentation of policy briefs to stakeholders e.g., at the WHO Executive Board Meeting. His recent field of work has been centered around sustainability of HIV and TB prevention, Care, Treatment program in LMICs beyond external assistance in the context of climate crises and global health security threats.

My research focuses on market-based conservation instruments, mainly biodiversity offsetting and their role in sustainability transformations. I study the diverse socio-ecological contexts in which these instruments are implemented and how the contexts influence their acceptance and uptake, both in the Global North and South. Currently my interest in is biodiversity offsetting in Colombia and Finland, which are the cases of my PhD research. I have also studied the science-policy-society interfaces related to European biodiversity policy and innovations related to forest ecosystem services.