Mario Jorge Baudoin Weeks (September 4, 1942 – May 18, 2019) was a Bolivian biologist and conservationist known for his research in Bolivia and Costa Rica. He was the first director of Bolivia's national park system,[1] and served as director of several academic and government institutes, including the Museo Nacional de Historia Natural de Bolivia , the Institute of Ecology at Higher University of San Andrés, Dirección Nacional Conservación de Biodiversidad (DNCB) and the La Selva Biological Station in Costa Rica.[2][3] In the early 1990s he was involved in the creation of the Servicio Nacional de Áreas Protegidas (SERNAP), which led to the 1995 establishment of Madidi National Park.[2] He received the 2008 Distinguished Services Award from the Society for Conservation Biology.
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Born in Sucre, Baudoin received his education in the United States, earning a B.Sc. at the City College of New York in 1967 followed by a master's (1969) and Ph.D. (1976) from the University of Michigan. He joined the faculty of the Higher University of San Andrés in 1985.[4] From 1991 to 1995 he was National Director of Biodiversity Conservation,[4] where he secured several million dollars from the World Bank to support Bolivia's national park system.[5] From 1998 to 2002 he served as General Director of Biodiversity under the Vice Ministry of Environment, Natural Resources and Forestry Development, serving several times as Acting Deputy Minister.[4] Baudoin died in La Paz on May 18, 2019, at the age of 76.[2] He is commemorated in the scientific name of the bromeliad species Greigia marioi.[6]
References
edit- ^ Steinberg, Paul F. (2003). "Understanding Policy Change in Developing Countries: The Spheres of Influence Framework". Global Environmental Politics. 3 (1): 11–32. doi:10.1162/152638003763336365.
- ^ a b c "Profesor Mario Baudoin, una vida de aporte a la ciencia y al medio ambiente". Periódico Digital PIEB (in Spanish). 21 May 2019.
- ^ "Mario Baudoin: un convencido de la protección a la biodiversidad". Archivo Documental Isiboro Sécure (in European Spanish). 22 May 2019.
- ^ a b c "Curriculum Vitae: Mario Jorge Baudoin Weeks". Biodiversity and Economically Important Species in the Tropical Andes. 23 March 2003. Retrieved 2 June 2019.
- ^ Steinberg, Paul F. (2001). Environmental Leadership in Developing Countries: Transnational Relations and Biodiversity Policy in Costa Rica and Bolivia. MIT Press. pp. 117–118. ISBN 978-0-262-69266-3.
- ^ Will, Bettina; Krömer, Thorsten; Kessler, Michael; Karger, Dirk N.; Luther, Harry E. (2009). "Three New Species and Two New Records of Greigia Regel (Bromeliaceae) from Bolivia". Selbyana. 30 (1): 91–100. JSTOR 41760352.