Graduated in geography and PhD in ecology, Livia is a specialist in the Cerrado (Bazilian Savanna) biome, local ecological knowledge and integrated fire management (IFM). Currently she is employed as a technical advisor at the Institute Society, Population and Nature (ISPN) in Brasília (Federal District), Brazil, where she manages and monitors community-based projects aimed at environmental conservation and sustainability, collaborates with the agendas of IFM, sociobiodiversity productive chains, gender, environmental changes and public policies, political articulation and multisector networking.

Professor at Environmental Studies, Simón Bolívar University, Venezuela. Field fire ecologist with 25 years of teaching, research, and capacity-building experience. She has promoted integrating Indigenous, technical, and scientific knowledge into fire management policies in Venezuela and other Latin-American countries, fostering Indigenous cultural heritage and biodiversity conservation. Europe Award 2010 Innovation for Sustainable Development and National Award 2013 for Best Scientific Work. Co-founder of the South-American Participatory and Intercultural Fire Management Network. Advisory Board member of the International Leverhulme Centre for Wildfires, Environment and Society, UK. "Scientifique Invite" 2022-2023 Programme, Montpellier Advanced Knowledge Institute on Transitions (MAK'IT), Montpellier Université d'Excellence, France.

Natasha S. Ribeiro, was born and raised in Maputo, Mozambique on August 24th 1971. She holds a bachelors degree in Forest Engineering from the Eduardo Mondlane University (UEM) in Mozambique, a MSc. in Management and Conservation of Biodiversity from the Centro Agronomico Tropical de Investigación y Enseñanza (CATIE) in Costa Rica and a PhD in Environmental Sciences from the University of Virginia (UVa) in the USA. Natasha has more than 25 years of professional experience in teaching, researching and extension in fields of restoration ecology and forest fires. Her teaching experience includes national and international universities and coordination of academic development projects. In research, Natasha has initiated a long-term fire-related research program in the Niassa Special Reserve, one of the most important conservation areas in Mozambique, southern Africa. The program has helped defining conservation action in the country. Natasha has been appointed the coordinator of key missions in the country such as the National Strategy and Action Plan for Biodiversity Conservation (NBSAP) under the UN Convention on Biodiversity. She also serves as an advisor in several international forums such as the IUFRO Forest Fire taskforce and the European project, FirEURisk. Between 2011 and 2021 she was the regional coordinator of the Miombo Network of southern Africa. Natasha was the recipient of the 2017-2018 Fulbright Visiting Scholar Program grant, which she used to visit the University of Virginia. She coordinated the book “Miombo woodlands in a changing world: securing the resilience and sustainability of people and woodlands” which was published in 2020.

Lara Steil is a Forestry Officer (Integrated Fire Management) at the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) since July 2022. She graduated in Biology Science and holds a master's degree in Biotechnology and a PhD in Sanitation. From 2005 to May 2022, she was the coordinator of the interagency department at the National Center for Wildfire Prevention and Suppression in Brazil (Prevfogo/Ibama). Over her 17-year career in fire management, she has been promoting national and international cooperation and the development of activities related to integrated fire management with indigenous and rural communities, promoting equity, diversity and inclusion. She is also involved with the paradigm shift from zero fire to integrated fire management through the development of public policies.