Pedro Prata

Team leader Western Iberia

Pedro Prata was born in 1982 and grew up in a family farm in the central mountains of Portugal. Since childhood, he has been wandering through the grassland plateaus, adventuring into the thick forests or simply sunbathing in the deep canyons of the rivers. It made him realise a complex web of relations that wild nature so fruitfully shows in its many different aspects. He is passionate for nature in all its extent and lover of outdoor sports. Pursuing this curiosity led him to an MSC in biology at the University of Lisbon, where he mostly researched the behaviour of plant and fungi interaction.

Starting an international career in 2005, he went to study evolution with an MSC on ecology and evolution in the Universiteit van Amsterdam which led his research to coral reef recovery after storm damage at Curaçao in the Caribbean. Until 2010, he lived and was involved in different projects in Brasil and the USA and finally came back to Europe.

Starting off with like-minded people to set up an ecosystem restoration company, also allowed him to develop skills and training in broader realms of conservation works. In the meantime, near his hometown was an organisation called ATN that represented the Rewilding initiative with an innovative project Faia Brava. Convinced that was a plausible strategy to deal with high levels of land abandonment that raged for decades the inland of the country, he led the organisation for 5 years, leading the innovation of rewilding within the conservation context in Portugal.

Since 2018, with the foundation of Rewilding Portugal, he is now taking responsibility to develop this project in the wider area, to cover the whole Coa river basin that stretches as a natural wildlife corridor that must be carefully tackled to bloom in diversity, taking the Rewilding Strategy as a model to achieve such goals.

Marta Calix

Project Manager

Marta Cálix was born in 1991 in Lisbon and has been interested in nature (and birds in particular) from a young age. Having studied evolutionary and developmental biology at the University of Lisbon, Marta decided to pursue an MSc in Wildlife Management and Conservation at the University of Reading in the UK. As a keen birdwatcher and ornithologist Marta has participated in several expeditions with Operation Wallacea, studying the avifauna of Guyana and Honduras, and teaching volunteers and students about the importance of long-term biodiversity monitoring schemes.

Her passion for the conservation of biodiversity led her to work at the IUCN European Regional Office in Brussels, where she participated in the compilation of several European Red Lists of Threatened Species. While at IUCN, Marta became increasingly interested in the linkages between business and biodiversity conservation, especially the potential for sustainable business models to support conservation work. This new interest led her to pursue an MBA at IE Business School in Madrid. As a result, Marta became interested in the rewilding movement in Europe, which is pioneering nature-based enterprises as part of large-scale rewilding initiatives and recently started working for Rewilding Portugal as a project manager.

Sara Casado Aliácar

Rewilding Officer

Sara Casado Aliácar was born in 1989 in Alcalá de Henares, a UNESCO World Heritage Centre in Spain. Passionate about living things and with the firm conviction of contributing to a better world for humans and nature, Sara decided to study a Bachelor and MSc in Environmental Sciences in her hometown. During her studies she had the opportunity of participating in projects of habitat restoration, environmental education and cooperation in Spain and Nicaragua, where she developed an increasing interest in nature conservation and biodiversity. She dived deeper into that path through a course in forest ecology in the University of Umeå in 2012 and an MSc in Biodiversity and Conservation in the University of Leeds in 2016.

In 2013 and 2014 she worked as a wolf monitoring technician in conservation project in Portugal, the LIFE MEDWOLF. With this experience, she developed an increasing interest in carnivores, human-wildlife coexistence, animal welfare and rewilding. She also felt fascinated by the Côa Valley and the rural life, so naturally got involved with the local NGO ATNatureza in 2016, where she was working for two years as Rewilding Officer and Project Manager of LIFE Landowners Club for the Conservation of Western Iberia in the private protected area Faia Brava.

In 2019, she entered the team of Rewilding Portugal as Conservation Officer, enthusiastic about the opportunity of continue working in the Côa Valley and at broader scale, based on a rewilding strategy.

Kayte Philliphs

Finance and Administration Officer

Kayte Phillips was born in 1974 in Shropshire, England and then moved to Wales in 1999, where she raised her children and learned to speak Welsh.

With a background in finance and management, Kayte is a qualified accountant and ran a small accountancy practice spending many years working within the voluntary arts sector in Mid Wales.

Kayte has recently relocated to Central Portugal to pursue her passion for music, language and permaculture, and brings over 15 years of financial management experience to the rewilding Portugal team.

Fernando Teixeira

Communication Officer

Fernando Teixeira is 24 years old and was born in Fundão, and therefore knows quite well the Greater Côa Valley region. He began his career as a journalist at a very young age, and still retains these duties, including the professional card.
He recently completed his law degree at the Faculty of Law of the Universidade do Porto, and is now a Master’s student in Management at UBI.

He has experience in several local and reference journals, having previously been director of a university newspaper and published two books of his own.
His dynamic and proactive attitude towards the media will be his focus as Communication Officer.

Daniel Veríssimo

Enterprise Officer

Daniel Veríssimo was born in Lisbon in 1997. He is passionate about nature since a young age and grew up watching BBC Wild Life documentaries.

The search for solutions to solve environmental problems made him study Economics in ISCTE where he took his bachelor and is currently finishing his master program.

A dynamic person he created with other colleagues the group Rethinking Economics in ISCTE: a space to discuss the last trends in the discipline.
As an economist, he hopes to develop a local nature-based economy in the Greater Côa Valley.

André Couto

Field Officer

André Couto was born in 1990 in the center of Portugal, where he grew up exploring some of the oldest protected areas in the country, and helping with the traditional farming practiced by his family. Years later, his interest in zoology led to a BSc in Biology and an MSc in Applied Ecology at the University of Aveiro. During his studies, his passion for amphibians and reptiles took him to places like the brazilian Amazon or the mayan jungle of Calakmul. The contact with these truly wild and diverse places fueled his will to work in nature conservation and contribute to the restoration of natural landscapes in Europe.

In 2015, back in Portugal for his master’s thesis, he had the opportunity to live and work in Montesinho Natural Park, experiencing one of the most complete ecosystems in the country, with wolves and large herbivores, which evidenced the importance of natural processes and rewilding in creating opportunities for the environment and people. Between 2016 and 2018 he applied this philosophy as a conservation officer for the municipality of Lousada, in northwestern Portugal, where he worked with several groups of vertebrates, managing priority habitats for threathened species and collaborating in the creation of local protected areas.

André happily joined the Rewilding Portugal team in 2019, hoping to contribute to a wilder future in the Côa Valley and a better coexistence between man and nature.

Miguel Pontes

Surveillance team

Miguel Pontes was born in 1990 in Porto, where he grew up in proximity to the sun and nature.

Since he was young he has been passionate about mountaineering and camping, having spent a large part of his free time between surfing on the northern beaches and hiking in the Peneda-Gerês National Park.

He had professional experience in several areas, from mechatronics to education, including health and human care.

After living seven years in England, where he discovered the importance of conservation through participation in projects developed by NGOs, he decided to return to Portugal to explore the historic and rural traditions of the centre region of Portugal, and make his contribution to the environment.

Miguel joined the Rewilding Portugal team in 2020, with the aim of contributing to the preservation of biodiversity and for a more sustainable coexistence.

Gonçalo Matos

Surveillance Team

Gonçalo Martins de Matos was born in Guarda in 1996, and from a very young age has accompanied his father in the management of cattle in Quinta do Tabalião, which aroused his interest to, at the academic level, embark on the Higher Technical Course in Biological Agricultural Production and attending the Degree in Agricultural Engineering.

His interest in the conservation and protection of wild fauna and flora comes from his great passion for hunting, a tradition that has existed in the family for several generations, which led him to discover a large part of the Iberian territory on hunting days. The slopes of the Côa are quite familiar to him due to the numerous partridge and woodcock hunts carried out there and the higher hunting level in the correction of densities in the international Tagus area.

During the closed seasons, it develops activities to preserve key species, providing them with food, water and improving habitats in order to promote their reproduction. He joined the Rewilding Portugal team in order to combine his passion for nature with his professional activity.

Pedro Ribeiro

Field Officer

Pedro Ribeiro was born in 1995 in the district of Setúbal. From an early age he became interested in wildlife and spent hundreds of hours watching wildlife documentaries.

He entered the University of Évora and graduated in Animal Science and Technology doing his final internship, in 2016, in a small Zoo and Wild Bird Hospital in England. A passion for nature conservation led him to take a Masters degree in Conservation Biology in the same city.

During his academic career, he became interested in ornithology, having participated in numerous national bird censuses, and has several years of experience as a ringer and as nature guide.

In 2021, he joined Rewilding Portugal’s  team with the intention of contributing to the conservation of scavenger birds in Portugal and to help in the rewilding of the Greater Côa Valley, restoring the stability and maturity of wild ecosystems, benefiting the entire food chain.

Marta Vieira

Veterinarian

Marta Vieira was born in 1983 in Northern Portugal. She has always had contact with animals and practiced nature activities such as hiking or mountain biking. Her relationship with domestic animals led her to pursue a master’s degree in veterinary medicine at the University of Lisbon. After several years working in a companion animal clinic, she completed a Masters in Clinical Ethology at the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona and dedicated herself to consulting on animal behavior with the aim of improving the relationship between animals and their families.

With her work at Rewilding Portugal, she seeks to contribute to the conservation of Nature and the improvement of biodiversity, promoting animal and human well-being.~

Sofia Capelo

Administrative

Sofia Capelo was born in Guarda in 1982, having spent most of her life in a village in the county.

Despite all her education having passed through the area of Arts and History and her professional experience being more than 10 years in the trade market, it was in the context of work indirectly linked to sports that she acquired the love by walking in nature.

Passionate about discovering landscapes and their history, hobbies of her spare time, she joined Rewilding Portugal´s project at the end of 2021 as an administrator, where she hopes to make her small contribution to conservation and the organization.