Diego Navarrete
Carbon Specialist
Bogota, Colombia
Diego Navarrete Carbon Specialist for The Nature Conservancy. © Diego Navarrete
AREAs OF EXPERTISE
Climate Change, Carbon Cycle, Tropical Forest Ecology
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Biography
Diego holds a PhD in Geography from University of Exeter (UK), a MSc in Amazonian Studies from Universidad Nacional de Colombia, and a BSc in Biology from Universidad de los Andes (Colombia). His research has been focused on establishing the impact of land-use change and management on carbon stock changes and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and removals within the Agriculture, Forestry and Other Land Use (AFOLU) sector. During his BSc and MSc studies, Diego focused his research on establishing the pattern of litter decomposition, litter fall and phenology of Amazonian forests, aiming to explain some processes associated with the carbon cycle in terrestrial ecosystems. In 2004 he received a scholarship from the Project for the Advancement of Networked Science in Amazonia (PAN-AMAZONIA) and the scholarship for Post-Graduate Outstanding Students from Universidad Nacional de Colombia to support his MSc research. His PhD research was focused on estimating carbon stocks/changes and GHG emissions/removals with forest-to-pasture conversion in the Colombian Amazon aimed to improve the Forest Reference Emission Level of Colombia. He was granted the AXA Research Fund Scholarship to support his PhD research.
Diego worked as a Researcher for Fundación Puerto Rastrojo, a Colombian NGO, where he analyzed ecological processes of the Amazon forest, including the net primary productivity of primary forests and plant decomposition, the patterns of flowering and fruiting of Amazonian trees, and the plant structure and composition of primary forests. From September 2009 Diego joined the Institute of Hydrology, Meteorology and Environmental Studies of Colombia (IDEAM), where he contributed to strengthen the national capacities of Colombia to support reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation (REDD) projects by developing national protocols to estimate carbon stocks of Colombian forests. In May 2011 Diego started working for Carbon Decisions International as Carbon Inventory Expert in REDD+, where he participated in the projects:
- Reducing emissions from avoided deforestation (REDD+) in the Multiple Use Zone of the Maya Biosphere Reserve in Guatemala;
- Baseline of emissions due to deforestation in San Martín region, Peru;
- Baseline of emissions due to deforestation in Cusco region, Peru;
- Emissions reference level in Ecuador;
- Strengthening the Monitoring, Report and Verification System of REDD+ in Peru.
Diego joined TNC as Carbon Specialist in June 2016, where he aims to contribute to develop new methodologies to measure carbon stocks and changes associated with land-use changes in productive systems, and to estimate CO2 emissions and captures, and CO2 emission intensity associated with land-use conversion in productive systems of Colombia, Ecuador and Peru. The new methodologies and estimates will also contribute to better estimate the CO2 emissions/removals and payments included within a Payment for Environmental Services and REDD+ schemes implemented by some countries within the NASCA region. His research will contribute to generate better emission factors and protocols to help improve national communications of countries on climate change and forest reference emission levels to be submitted to the UNFCCC.
Diego’s research has been published in high-impact scientific journals, such as Nature and Global Change Biology, as well as in official reports and documents. He is a long-distance runner and he enjoys hiking through the forests and rural areas everywhere.
Diego holds a PhD in Geography from University of Exeter (UK), a MSc in Amazonian Studies from Universidad Nacional de Colombia, and a BSc in Biology from Universidad de los Andes (Colombia). His research has been focused on establishing the impact of land-use change and management on carbon stock changes and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and removals within the Agriculture, Forestry and Other Land Use (AFOLU) sector. Diego contributed to publish new methodologies to accurately estimate carbon stocks and changes with land-use conversion for the Monitoring, Reporting and Verification systems of Colombia and Peru. He also contributed to elaborate the forest reference emission level of Ecuador, and the baseline of GHG emissions due to deforestation in San Martín and Cusco regions (Peru) and the Multiple Use Zone of the Maya Biosphere Reserve (Guatemala). Diego’s research has been published in leading scientific journals, as well as in official reports and documents.
Diego currently works at TNC as Carbon Specialist for the NASCA program, where he aims to accurately estimate the carbon stocks/changes and GHG emissions/removals associated with land-use conversion in productive systems of Colombia, Peru and Ecuador, in support of climate change mitigation. Diego is a long-distance runner and he enjoys hiking through the forests and rural areas everywhere.