Solinia

PRESIDENT: Ney, 47, is Peruvian, originally from Iquitos. Ney has an unrivaled local knowledge of the forest, the rivers, the communities and the animals. This knowledge is really important for us to successfully protect this wonderful Amazonian environment; Ney’s knowledge is like a big library! Ney is also a skilled handyman; he is able to construct a raft with only logs and rope. He has demonstrated his hardiness by taking part in the Great Amazon Raft Race 6 years running! This endurance event requires competitors to navigate over 180 kilometres (112 miles) of the Amazon river on their own log rafts during 3 days. Ney is our chief boatman, making sure our team is able to travel safely during day to day activities, river dolphins observations and longer surveys and expedition work. CONTACT: ney@solinia.org

PROJECTS MANAGER: Cédric was born in 1969 in Belgium He has a Master in Polytechnics with 14 years’ experience in project management and contract negotiation in a big International Company in the Banking Services Industry. Ever since he was a young boy, Cédric has had a real passion for aquatic mammals. Five times he participated in the Great Amazon Raft Race. The first time during this enjoyable but tough experience in the Amazon, he encountered many river dolphins; this was more than just a dream come true… it was a real revelation! Being aware of the many threats to river dolphins and the lack of action in Peru, in 2011 Cédric decided to change his life and to work for the conservation and protection of river dolphins in the Peruvian Amazon. He contacted and visited people and associations interested in river dolphins in Peru, Colombia and Bolivia and in 2012 he founded a non-profit association in Peru; Solinia. Now Cédric is fully committed to Solinia and is working hard, with his colleagues, to develop river dolphins conservation and protection projects and initiatives in collaboration with other experts. CONTACT: cedric@solinia.org

BOAT DRIVER: Jore is our boat driver, he has a good experience to drive the boat carefully during observations of the river dolphins. Always trying to be non-invasive and not too close from the groups. He is always going with his son Marcos who is helping, bailing water out of the boat and trying to locate animals… maybe the future river dolphins’ specialist?

VOLUNTEERS: Several volunteers, mainly young students in biology and ecology from local universities, have joined Solinia in order to help with the BUFEOS program. Once per week, some of them are going on the Amazon river close to Iquitos in order to observe and locate group of dolphins.

The following persons have proposed CONSULTANCY for all or part of the program:

• Alison Wood, Policy Manager and River Dolphin Programme Lead – Whale and Dolphin Conservation Society (WDCS) International (HQ in UK) – South American River Dolphin Protected Area Network – SARDPAN

• PhD. Fernando Trujillo, Director and Scientific Advisor – Omacha Foundation (Colombia) & SARDPAN
• PhD. Enzo Aliaga-Rossel, Scientific Advisor, Bolivia

• Dr Paul Vandamme, Director and Scientific Advisor – NGO FaunAgua (Bolivia) & SARDPAN

• Dr Jean-François Renno, Researcher (genetic), based in Iquitos (Peru) – Institut de Recherche pour le Développement – IRD (France)

• PD Dr Uwe Römer, Researcher (ecology, systematics) – University of Trier (Germany)