Meet ARCC’s 2024 Research & Journalism Grantees
We are thrilled to announce the recipients of this year's ARCC Research and Journalism Grants! 🎉These outstanding individuals are advancing ARCC’s mission by supporting vital conservation efforts in the Ecuadorian Amazon. Read more about them below!
Daniela Beltrán Bermeo
Daniela Beltrán B. is an Ecuadorian documentary photographer and visual storyteller dedicated to capturing the intersection of environmental and human rights, social change, and the impacts of extractivism. In 2020, she graduated with a BFA from the Academy of Art University in San Francisco, California. Her work is particularly focused on the Amazon Rainforest, where she has collaborated with nonprofit organizations like Ecociencia and the Pachamama Alliance, in addition to pursuing her own projects documenting the region and the challenges it faces.
Over the past six years, Daniela has extensively documented the environmental and social repercussions of extractive industries, as well as the resilience and innovative resistance movements within affected communities. Her commitment to environmental protection extends beyond land to the sea, working with the international nonprofit Sea Shepherd Global, she contributed to efforts to safeguard marine ecosystems in West Africa from illegal industrial fishing, another form of extractivism.
Currently, Daniela is pursuing an MSc in Sociology: Transformation and Social Innovation at the Universitat de Barcelona, where she is expanding her knowledge of the historical and systemic forces that drive the exploitation of natural resources in the name of development. Through her work, she continues to shed light on the global challenges of environmental degradation and social injustice, while amplifying the voices of those fighting for a more sustainable and equitable future.
Her work has been exhibited in Ecuador, United States and Barcelona.
Instagram: @danielabeltranb
Website: www.danielabeltranb.com
Andy Ruiz Peña
Andy is a Lojano Biologist raised and educated in Paquisha-Zamora Chinchipe in southern Ecuador. Andy’s love for birds is matched by his passion for teaching through environmental education. His current work focuses on the study and monitoring of Amazonian birds through quantitative and qualitative methodologies. Over the past 3 years, he has visited much of southern Ecuador, monitoring birds and uploading data to the eBird platform to contribute information about understudied Ecuadorian bird populations. His latest project, supported by ARCC, will be focused on the study and monitoring of bird populations in Paquisha where illegal gold mining is heavily practiced. His data will be used to inform the conservation status of bird populations in the cloud forest using novel bioacoustic monitoring tools.
Instagram: @ruiz_andy20
These opportunities would not be possible without the support of ARCC’s members, sponsors, and donors. Too each and every one of you — THANK YOU!
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