Meet the Brazilian saving her forests.


Not all heroes wear capes they say, it is certainly not every day you meet dream chasers; this is what Tropentag associated with, telling the special stories of those trying to save our planet.

It was an exciting experience getting to meet the young Miss Feranada Martinelli, one of the student reporters at the Tropentag 2019. She is on a mission to save the depleting natural resources of South-eastern Brazil, a biome believed to contain more biodiversity than the famous Brazilian Amazon. This passion was borne out of a childhood love for plants and animals. This in turn led to her earning a bachelor of Biology from the University of Viçosa, where she continuously questioned the status quo. Why am I thinking about birds and tree species, when I can not ascertain their availability tomorrow? After all, questions and not answers create knowledge.

On graduation, she got to pursue her passion by working with Conservation International. Here, she acquired over three years of international work experience working on preventing deforestation, as well as slash and burn activities among locals across Brazil. Beyond ensuring environmental conservation across Brazil, she has also managed a significant quantity of government-funded socio-economic empowerment projects. Having been exposed to realities on the field, she is presently pursuing a PhD in development at the University of Bonn, Germany, to gather the requisite skills needed to actualise her career goal of ensuring that her homeland remains specie-diverse.

As a student reporter at Tropentag 2019, She aims to convince participants and indeed everyone to take definite action towards ensuring environmental conservation. She plans to further her career objectives by working with several international non-governmental organisations, where she would continue to design and implement impactful environmental conservation projects. She is definitely an environmental hero to watch out for.