Olga Barbosa is a Biologist and PhD in Ecology from the Pontificia Universidad Católica. She completed a postdoc at the University of Sheffield, England, and another at the Institute of Ecology and Biodiversity in Chile. She has been President of the Chilean Ecology Society (2016-2018) and Regional Ministerial Secretary of Science, Technology, Knowledge and Innovation of the Southern Macrozone of Chile (2019-2022). Since 2010 she is an academic at the Faculty of Sciences of the Austral University and a Researcher at the Institute of Ecology and Biodiversity.
Her research is focused on ecosystem ecology and the development of biological conservation in environments subject to socioeconomic pressures. In this context, she has investigated how multifunctional landscapes contribute to the provision of ecosystem services, especially in agricultural systems and cities, with the aim of developing applicable models that reconcile productive development with social and environmental development. This has led her to participate in international panels (LEAP-FAO, IPBES-UN), parliamentary and executive commissions (MMA and MINAGRI), establishing links between scientific knowledge and evidence-informed decision-making.
Among other things, she created the Wine Climate Change and Biodiversity Program that involves the wine industry in the conservation of Chile’s Mediterranean ecosystem.
