Born in Spain, Manuel is an anthropologist and archaeologist interested in the protection of cultural and biological diversity. He has been working with environmental non-profit organizations for more than 25 years in Europe, Central, and South America and the United States. Manuel has been with EarthTeam since 2013.

Little Known Fact: Manuel loves to hike in the wilderness with his two (or three!) big golden retrievers. He was the founder of the TUVA Foundation, (United Lands of Neighbors for the Environment) and acted as its Executive Director for 11 years, from 1990 to 2001. As a local nonprofit headquartered in the town of Puerto Jimenez, TUVA launched collaborative community-conservation initiatives in a highly conflictive area that in 1989 had the highest deforestation rate in the world, finally saving over 5 million trees in a 20,000-acre buffer zone around Corcovado National Park, in southern Costa Rica. TUVA’s pioneering “working landscapes” approach built a coalition of stakeholders including local residents, landowners, government agencies, eco-tourism operators, illegal loggers, gold miners, indigenous groups and a wide network of over 50 local, regional and international organizations. TUVA also played a key role in the Stone Container campaign in 1990, a transnational industrial forestry project that threatened the integrity of local forest ecosystems. In 1990 TUVA also started the Osa Sea Turtle Study, a community-based effort to protect several endangered species of sea turtles. TUVA’s story was featured in NPR’s Living on Earth Top Story in 198.

This 10- year effort resulted in groundbreaking agreements that successfully protected cultural and biological diversity in an extensive “working buffer zone” around Corcovado National Park, conserving landscapes and providing new economic alternatives to local residents, including the beginnings of the Smart Wood certification program to support sustainable local communities. According to National Geographic, Corcovado National Park’s 150,000 acres contains the richest rainforests in the world and is the “most biologically intense place on Earth”. Today, TUVA’s legacy continues and has expanded under the management of a new organization, Osa Conservation, that took over operations in 2005.