Bert De Bievre, PhD

e-mail: bert.debievre@fonag.org.ec

Fondo para la Protección del Agua (FONAG), Ecuador

Technical Secretary of FONAG, Quito’s Water Fund. Bert has more than 20 years of experience in the Tropical Andes. For more than 10 years, he worked in academia at the Universidad de Cuenca, Ecuador, where he helped to form what is now a consolidated research group in soil and water management with an emphasis in Andean hydrology. Subsequently, Bert worked for 10 years leading projects in Venezuela, Colombia, Ecuador and Peru focused on Andean ecosystems such as the paramo, watershed management, and hydrology of Andean catchments. In recent years, based at CONDESAN in Lima, Peru, he has been advising the Peruvian Ministry of Environment and drinking water regulator, SUNASS, on the design and implementation of policies supporting incentives and compensation for hydrological ecosystem services, in partnership with Forest Trends and the Swiss Cooperation. Bert holds a PhD in Applied Biological Sciences (2002), an MSc in Water Resources Engineering (1991), and a Degree in Civil Engineering (1990) from Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, Belgium.