Carolina Murcia, Ecologist

Official Title: Sub-regional Coordinator,
Northern Andes Department, WCS

“Never give up. This is YOUR world.”

As a teenager, Carolina became interested in nature when her father taught her to skin-dive (snorkel) in the coral reefs of the Atlantic coast of Colombia.  However, there were no opportunities to volunteer to work in biology or in conservation in Colombia at the time.  According to Carolina, the concept of biological conservation became familiar in her native country only years after she left high school.  But once she entered college to study biology, she enrolled immediately as a volunteer in several research projects.

It was during her studies that Carolina was introduced to the tropical cloud forests of the Andes Mountains of South America.  It was love at first sight. 

A cloud forest is a certain type of rainforest found only in mountain areas in the tropics.  It is usually much cooler than the forests that surround it, and it is immersed in clouds most of the time.  And here’s the really cool part: The clouds deposit water directly onto leaves and other vegetation!  Its unique weather conditions make it home to thousands of plants and animals found nowhere else on Earth.

Soon after graduating college, she traveled to the United States to earn her Ph.D.  For the past two decades, she has studied cloud forests full time and worked to train others about what she has learned.  Since conservation is still a relatively new concept in Latin America, Carolina is one of just a few people working in conservation and changing the general public's perception of their environment.  And, just like when she was first introduced to this wonderful ecosystem, Carolina enjoys the excitement of discovery that comes with research, and the satisfaction of making a contribution when she participates in conservation projects.