BIOPHILIA AWARDS in Environmental Humanities
and Social Sciences
Applicant: Professor Cristian Bonacic
Description
Fauna Australis is a conservation research group founded by Cristian Bonacic in 2001. For more than two decades our aim is to close the gap between people and nature through the understanding of wild animals’ needs in ever changing landscapes. That is why the motto of this laboratory is the passion for wildlife, the ecosystems and the people that share the landscapes with wildlife. It is the dedication of our members that fuels the creation of a connection between conservation science and people. We have been seeking practical solutions to complex human-wildlife coexistence challeneges. We believe in team work and cross frontier research as we have contributed to conservation and sustainable use of South American wild Camelids in The Andes as well as jaguars and pumas coexistence in Latam. In Fauna Australis, curious minds from different backgrounds find a place to developing and learning how to conserve nature working in the ground, applying science and novel technologies without forgetting that at the end effective conservation is about how people takes decision as a community about the fate of wild animals and their environments.
Welcome to our website and this special page made for the Biophilia Awards in environmental humanities and social sciences.
From Human-Wildlife conflict to coexistence
Fauna Australis is a problem solved oriented laboratory that used conservation based in evidence and a multidisciplinary approach to tackle practical conservation challeneges in multiple taxa and ecosystems. With the effort of our students and academics, Fauna Australis has worked for more than two decades on solving day to day issues between human lifestyle and wildlife, with education and professional capacitations we take science to the society.
Fauna Australis has contributed to local capacity building, training of the next generation of conservationists from Chile and abroad and close collaboration with Government agencies, provate sector and national and international NGOs. More than 50 former students are now working in conservation in different countries of The Americas as well as Europe and The UK. Our academic ties includes scientists and conservationists from multiple countries and we have a strong and long-term collaborations with WildCRU (Oxford University), Columbia University, Universidad Autónoma de México, University of British Columbia of Canada and USA organizations like University of Wisconsin, Colorado State University, University of Huancavelica (Perú), Instituto de Pesquisa Ecologica (Brazil) and The International Biodiversity Network (formerly Wildlife trust Alliance).
Fauna Australis is a research and teaching laboratory created and located at The School of Agriculture and Nature of The Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile. We thank each of the academics, students and personnel of the University for their collaboration in our development.
Email: FaunaAustralis@gmail.com
Department of Ecosystems and The Environment
Fauna Australis 