Participating researchers AU

Henrik Balslev (Coordinator - Steering commitee member)

Tropical botanist with many years experience in research in palms, ethno-ecology and factors controlling biodiversity. He has worked extensively among local people and has also been much involved in long-term projects for enhancement of research capacity in developing countries. He has organized numerous conferences and symposia, and participates actively in several international organizations and research projects (i.e., IUBS executive board; GBIF governing board). He has published numerous articles in leading international journals and edited about 12 scientific books.

Jens-Christian Svenning

Macroecologist who specialises in modeling plant distributions as response to external factors such as climatic channge and anthropogenic factors such as deforestation or changes in human impact intensities.

Anders Barfod

Tropical botanists with extended field experience from both the Neotropics and SE Asia. His research has mainly focused at palm biology, including the economically important genera Phytelephas and Aphandra and has published numerous scientific papers in some of major journals within the field of botany.

Finn Borchsenius

Tropical botanist specializing in the palm family particularly in South America, and with much experience from the Andean countries. He has much expertise in bio-informatics including data-bases and internet delivery of botanical information (www.palmbase.org). He collaborates with Kew in the European Distributed Institute of Taxonomy (EDIT).

Flemming Skov

Senior Research Scientist (at Environmental Research Department recently integrated into Aarhus University) contributes with expertise in land-use planning with GIS-methodologies for decision support and spatial modelling. He has extensive experience with GIS applications for research, conservation and development in developing countries, including in South America.