Benjamin Zukowski

Ben Zukowski works with Andean bear and tapir conservation, ecotourism, education, and sustainable development in several rural villages of the northern Ecuadorian Andes. He has published multiple journal articles on human wildlife conflict, sociology studies, and best practices in the region. He is still in-touch with the community leaders and biologists to advise on capacity building. He also remains close with friends and families after living and working in the region. Previously, Ben studied international development, ecotourism, and ecology at the Institute of Central American Development Studies in San Jose, Costa Rica, including field work and a thesis on the cultural sustainability of the Bribri tribe in the lowland Caribbean rainforest. He received his BA from the University of Michigan in 2013 and also spent three years at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, where he was a member of the Multilingual Communities of Practice. Ben will receive his Masters of Environmental Management Degree in 2019 from Yale University and is currently a Science Communication Fellow for the Yale Institute of Biospheric Sciences. He hopes to work a lot more with Ecuador/Latin America during his time at and after Yale!