Dr. Aguilar-Amuchastegui is WWF’s global Forest and Climate Program lead on measuring, reporting, and verification (MRV) of REDD+ activities. As such, he is focused on solidifying and expanding WWF’s science role in REDD+.

Naikoa is originally from Colombia, where he earned his BS in biology from the Pontificia Universidad Javeriana of Bogota. He went on to earn his MS in tropical forest management and conservation of biodiversity from the Tropical Agronomic Research and Higher Education Center (CATIE) in Costa Rica, and received his Ph.D. from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln in natural resource science with a specialization in GIS and remote sensing. Truly international, Naikoa speaks no less than four languages: French, Spanish, Portuguese, and English.

Naikoa was previously Assistant Professor of GIS and Remote Sensing in the University of North Carolina-Wilmington’s Department of Environmental Studies. His teaching experience makes him a great trainer for important REDD+ capacity-building initiatives. Most recently, he organized MRV capacity-building events in Peru in May 2012, bringing together REDD+ project managers from more than five countries to learn and share key skills and experiences and in Community MRV in Guyana in October 2014.