Peter has over 40 years of operational, management and policy experience in natural resources with an emphasis in fire management, system development, policy formation and implementation, national MRV systems, forest, and land management across Africa, Australia, Europe, North America and South America. Peter has been engaged on a wide range of national and international natural resources related activities working for national governments, FAO, the World Bank and in the private sector. His roles have included planning, training and supporting the development of systems for land, resources, and fire management in many countries. His expertise and skill set are heavily focused on institutions and arrangements for forest and land use, with an emphasis on fire related management, planning, policy settings, coherence, and coordination. He has published widely on fire management, roles of responsibilities, laws, and policies for fire management and community-based fire management. Specializations Forest Fire Management National and agency level Systems and Policy Complex facilitation Qualifications and Memberships Bachelor of Science (Forestry) – Australian National University Master of Forestry – University of Montana PhD – Australian National University

Steve Pyne is a fire historian, urban farmer, and emeritus professor at Arizona State University, USA. Among his many fire-themed books are fire histories for America, Canada, Australia, Europe (including Russia), the Earth, and, in press, Mexico. Recently, he has developed the notion of a Pyrocene, that humanity’s manipulation over fire is creating the fire equivalent of an ice age. Other books include The Ice (Antarctica); How the Canyon Became Grand; Voyager: Exploration, Space, and the Third Great Age of Discovery; and The Great Ages of Discovery: How Western Civilization Learned About a Wider World. He graduated from Stanford University (BA) and the University of Texas-Austin (MA, PhD). He spent 15 seasons with the North Rim Longshots, a fire crew at Grand Canyon National Park, and has written fire plans for Rocky Mountain and Yellowstone National Parks. He lives in Arizona.

Alexandre Quintanilha, internationally recognized scientist, was born in Africa and lived in the United States before moving to Porto, where he directed and taught at the Institute of Molecular and Cellular Biology until his retirement. He is currently a Member of Parliament in the Republic Assembly. He was born in Mozambique on August 9, 1945, son of an Azorean and a German. His father was a famous biologist but Alexander began by studying physics. He graduated in Theoretical Physics at the University of Johannesburg in South Africa. He later traveled to the United States and studied at the prestigious University of Berkeley, California. It was during this period and whilst living in San Francisco that he met Richard Zimler, then a student. Zimler, who he later married in Portugal, is nowadays a famous writer as well as a university professor. Between 1983 and 1990 he was assistant director of the Energy and Environment section at the Lawrence National Laboratory. In the 90’s he was challenged to return to Portugal and help found the Institute of Molecular and Cellular Biology, where he eventually became the director. The arrival to Porto happened at the invitation of the neurologist Corino de Andrade, who at the time was already planning to create the Institute of Biomedical Sciences Abel Salazar. It would be there that Alexandre Quintanilha would teach until he retired. He is the author of publications in the areas of Biology, Environment and Applied Physics. He is the only Portuguese member of the National Geographic Society’s Research and Exploration Council. He has published close to 100 articles in several worldwide scientific journals and was the editor and author of six volumes in areas of Biology and Environment. More than a scientist, Alexandre Quintanilha is a passionate for knowledge. He’s lived in three continents, speaks four languages ​​and likes to question what seems permanent. If at first he felt some difficulties adapting to the city, he quickly became infected by the beauty of Porto and by the friendly way in which he was received.

Harifidy Rakoto Ratsimba is a Researcher on Natural Resources Monitoring at the Department of Water and Forestry in the School of Agronomy of the University of Antananarivo. He is currently the Head Researcher of LLandDev (Land, Landscape and Development Research Lab) in charge of the Regional Eastern Africa Fire Monitoring Resource Center (REA-FMRC) and works specifically on science / policy interfaces in the field of sustainable land management.