ETIFOR | Valuing Nature (ETIFOR)
ETIFOR is a highly specialised consulting firm providing solutions to the main socio-economic challenges within development and nature conservation projects.
As a spin-off company of the University of Padua (Italy), we work with a strong scientific approach, using innovative social and technological techniques, while ensuring the good governance and implementation of our proposed solutions. Our work leads to improving the economic, environmental and social benefits of policies, projects and investments for private corporations, civil society organisations and national governments. ETIFOR’s roots are based on the experiences developed by several PhD graduates at the Department of Land, Environment, Agriculture and Forestry (TESAF) at the University of Padua. Since its foundation, ETIFOR has worked to turn scientific knowledge into practical solutions by choosing, realising and managing projects with positive environmental, social and governance impacts (ESG impacts) in its three defined areas of intervention: sustainable investments, responsible management and tourism & local development.
After 10 years of increased intervention, we have operated in more than 40 countries and have over 300 impact-driven projects in our portfolio.
Juan Diego Restrepo Restrepo
Project Manager in the Rexus Project
Juan Diego is a Forest Engineer and MSc in Sustainable Tropical Forestry. He is currently working on EU research projects on the water-food-energy nexus, exploring the tradeoffs among water uses for agriculture, energy, and ecological conservation. He is interested in collaborative platforms that involve civil society, the public, and the private sectors to strengthen natural resources governance.
Linda Barci
Junior Officer in the Rexus Project
After a bachelor degree in Land Management and Landscape Protection at the University of Padua, Linda enrolled in Resource Economics and Sustainable Development, a Master degree of the University of Bologna, which, thanks also to the final thesis, gave her the opportunity to cover relevant concepts and approaches concerning the evaluation of ecosystem services. Furthermore, she spent a semester in Sweden, at SLU University, where she deepened her understanding of natural resources governance. She is currently a Junior Officer at the Responsible Management Unit, where she collaborates on water resources governance projects.
Alessandro Leonardi
Technical supervisor in the Rexus Project
He is the director of the International Cooperation Unit at ETIFOR. Specialized in forest certification and Payments for Ecosystem services, forest entrepreneurship and innovation, and development cooperation. He manages and coordinates several projects and teams on the above-mentioned topics. Moreover, he oversees fundraising activities, project and operational management, with an extended knowledge on funding integration and innovative and alternative financing mechanisms for environmental/forest projects. He delivers trainings and seminars at the University of Padova and performs consultancy for the private and the public sector on environmental accounting, markets for ecosystem services. Recently he has collaborated on the Global Watershed Market Outlook for Forest Trends Association, Washington, DC. He has working experience in Italy, Spain, England, Honduras, Guatemala, Colombia, Chile, Morocco, Russia and Malaysia.
Giulia Amato
Technical supervisor in the Rexus Project
With a master thesis on the evaluation of the touristic and recreational service provided by an alpine valley within the Making Good Natura Project (EU funded LIFE programme), Giulia Amato has deepened the complexity of ecosystem services evaluation methods. The gained knowledge has been put into practice in Etifor through various projects that focussed on economic evaluation: Ecopay-Connect Oglio Sud and Ecopay-Connect 2020, funded by a private foundation, and RockTheAlps and Sorgenti, two projects conducted by Ersaf, the Regional Body for Forests in Lombardy. She is also responsible for several projects dealing with the design of policies and innovative tools for economical sustainability of nature conservation actions, from the proposal to the execution phase. Most of the projects are funded by EU (directly or trough RDP): RDP Gruppo Operativo Brenta 2020 and LIFE Brenta 2030 on the governance of water resources, LIFE IP GESTIRE 2020 on innovative governance mechanisms in protected areas, H2020 Sincere on innovative actions related to forest ecosystem services.
Arianna Ruberto
Communication Manager in the Rexus Project
Graduated in Semiotics in 2012 from the Alma Mater Studiorum – University of Bologna. Since then she has worked in the field of communication, carrying out various activities ranging from content editing to social media marketing. Currently, for Etifor, she deals with the management of corporate communication and the promotion, online and offline, of numerous initiatives including the European project ECOSTAR co-financed by the Erasmus+ fund.
