Daniela Alba-Patiño

Postdoctoral Researcher

Daniela holds a bachelor's degree in Environmental Engineering by the Universidad El Bosque, Bogotá-Colombia (2012-2017), during which I completed a 5-month academic exchange at Universidad Nacional de Cuyo, Mendoza-Argentina (2016). Subsequently, she earned a European Master's degree in Sustainable Use of Natural Resources and Ecosystem Services from the University of Almeria (2018-2019), receiving the Extraordinary Master's Award for the best academic records in 2018-2019 academic year. In 2019, I began working as a research assistant in the LIFE project “Restoring desertified areas with an innovative method of tree cultivation across the Mediterranean border to increase resilience” led by the Andalusian Centre for Global Change - Hermelindo Castro at the University of Almeria. In 2020, I joined the Sustainability, Resilience and Governance of Socio-Ecological Systems Group (Sociecos), where she pursued a PhD funded by the University Teacher Training (FPU 2019) grant. Her thesis, titled "Understanding conservation conflicts from social-ecological perspectives: analysis of cases in the Iberian Peninsula”, was awarded the distinction of Outstanding Cum Laude with International Mention (October 2024).

Her PhD research employed social-ecological systems science to understand and manage conservation conflicts, considering the environmental justice perspective. During the PhD, she undertook two research stays, totaling four months, at the Social-Ecological Systems Institute, a European research center at Leuphana University, Germany (2022 and 2023). Her research outcomes include a total of 8 scientific articles published in recognized international journals and one chapter in The Routledge Handbook of Cultural Ecosystem Services.

Currently, her research focuses on wildlife interactions, conservation conflicts, and human dimensions of conservation, aiming to integrate social and ecological perspectives to enhance biodiversity conservation strategies. Since January 2025, she has been working as a postdoctoral researcher on the project “Evaluating biocultural diversity and social-ecological vulnerability for conserving rural areas in Spain (EmBraCe)” at the University of Almeria.