Article Author: Yorgos Mertzanis
Robin Rigg
Robin Rigg is a biologist focused on large carnivore ecology, management and coexistence with people. He has over 25 years’ experience of implementing and evaluating damage prevention measures. He is a member of the IUCN specialist group Large Carnivore Initiative for Europe and the Slovak Wildlife Society. He has studied at the universities of Cambridge, Aberdeen and Ljubljana and wrote his Masters thesis on livestock guarding dogs.
Daniel Mettler
Daniel Mettler studied philosophy and economics. He worked for several years as a shepherd and created the Centre for Livestock Damage Prevention for Switzerland at AGRIDEA. He has published several articles, technical papers and guidelines on protection measures. He is currently responsible for a variety of topics including regional development in mountain areas and the management of alpine pastures.
John Linnell
Coming soon:
Ecology, behaviour, population dynamics and conservation of carnivores and wild ungulates. Conservation of species that cause conflicts with humans. Ecology – social science interdisciplinarity.
Valeria Salvatori
Valeria Salvatori is a conservation biologist who has focused her work on carnivore ecology and management for the last 20 years. She is a member of the Large Carnivore Initiative for Europe and has led LIFE projects aimed at mitigating the impacts of large carnivores on agricultural production. She gained her Masters degree at Sapienza University, Rome, on the ecology of South American foxes and her PhD at Southampton University on habitat suitability assessment for wolves, bears and lynx in the Carpathian mountains.
Silvia Ribeiro
Silvia Ribeiro is a biologist at Grupo Lobo, Portugal, with extensive experience in conflict mitigation, particularly the use of livestock guarding dogs to prevent damage by wolves. She has trained in animal welfare and her Masters in ethology focused on the ontogeny of social preferences in livestock guarding dogs. She is currently concluding her PhD on physiological aspects of canine social attachment.
Micha Herdtfelder
Micha Herdtfelder is a trained mediator and specialist in human dimensions of wildlife. He is head of the large carnivore working group at the Forest Research Institute in Baden-Wuerttemberg, Germany. He promotes fact-based, trust-building communication between stakeholders in order to find viable solutions for coexistence with carnivores, including damage prevention. He studied geoecology in Karlsruhe, focusing on wildlife ecology and hunting techniques, and wrote his PhD thesis on Eurasian lynx.
Katja Krawetzke
Katja has been working as a graphic designer and web developer at Agridea in Switzerland since 2022.
Andrea Besinic
Andrea studied environmental engineering related to the management of natural resources in an agricultural context. She joined Agridea in 2023, in particular for a project concerning coexistence between wolves and bovid/equid breeders, finding practical solutions to mitigate conflicts, and for CDPnews as a web content manager.
Solomon Araya
Solomon Araya combines expertise in technology and agriculture, highlighted by his role as Project Leader for Chatbot and Digital Content at Agridea, Zurich. With a Master’s degree and multiple certifications, his diverse experience extends to agricultural roles, showcasing versatility. Fluent in different traditional and programming languages, Solomon Araya exemplifies technical proficiency and a commitment to innovation.