Santiago Ramirez Said

Sargassum Project Manager, Geography, University of Victoria
MSc Natural Resource Sciences, Forestry and Climate Change, McGill University. Quebec, Montreal, Canada.
Post Graduate Specialization, Geographic Information Systems, University of California, Davis. Davis, California, United States.
BSc Biology and Microbiology, Universidad de los Andes. Bogotá, Colombia.
Contact

I am a Colombian and Lebanese biologist, storyteller, and educator who works on interdisciplinary initiatives to address socio-environmental challenges such as climate change, biodiversity loss, massive Sargassum landings, deforestation, and the refugee crisis. I have been a National Geographic Explorer since 2021, working on projects that involve (1) collaborating with Indigenous leaders in Latin America for Traditional Plant Knowledge revitalization, (2) implementing photography and storytelling workshops for Indigenous Youth in Panama, (3) educational and technological co-design with coastal communities to re-purpose Sargassum seaweed in Colombia and Puerto Rico, and (4) leading drone and storytelling workshops for park rangers and youth conservation groups in Peru towards the conservation of the critically endangered yellow-tailed woolly monkey. I have previous experience as a project and community engagement manager in Future Earth, leading the engagement with First Nations in Canada and working to incorporate their perspectives into our research aiming to find better avenues for the implementation of equitable Nature-based Solutions in Canada.

Currently, as a project manager in the SPECTRAL LAB, I work on a fascinating international collaboration between the University of Victoria (Canada), the University of Miami (U.S.), the University of Sao Paulo (Brazil), and the UNAM University (Mexico). Our project, “Increasing Local Preparedness to Sargassum Tides in the Amazon and Mesoamerican Reef through Enhanced Monitoring and Blue Economies,” is an NFRF- and FAPESP-funded project in the Atlantic Coasts of Mexico and Brazil. This project seeks to develop holistic AI monitoring algorithms for Sargassum seaweed, train local community collaborators in drone monitoring and remote sensing interpretation, better understand the health impacts of decomposing Sargassum on humans, explore the most cost-effective ways for communities to transform the seaweed into products of economic importance, and co-design challenge-based educational methodologies with local partners to increase local knowledge on Sargassum, its origin, and ways to mitigate its impacts.

Beyond my work in sustainability science, social justice, climate change, and conservation, I am a collaborator for Witness Change, a Photo Ambassador for Ponant, and a Destination Expert for National Geographic Expeditions and Lindblad.