Expedition Leaders
Wildlife Conservation Expedition in Costa Rica

Rebeca Chaverri - Country Director - Costa Rica

Rebeca was born and raised in Costa Rica. Her passion for wildlife took her to volunteer with leatherback turtles more than 10 years ago, a turning point that marked the beginning of a wildlife conservation career. She holds a Bachelor’s degree in Tropical Biology and a Master’s degree in Wildlife Conservation and Management from the Universidad Nacional in Costa Rica, developing a GIS based predictive model of jaguar and puma in the Osa Wildlife Corridor of Costa Rica for her thesis. Rebeca has research experience in the US, Panama and Nicaragua on a variety of areas such as carnivore and sea turtle conservation and she has been trained on the use of camera trapping, GIS and tracking methods for wildlife purposes. Rebeca has worked for volunteer-based organizations, as a consultant for national and international organizations, and has extensive teaching experience. She has also enjoyed travelling extensively in Europe, Central America, Mexico and Colombia, and she lived in the US for over 2 years. Now she is very excited to be back in her home country as part of the GVI Costa Rica team.

David Jones - Base Manager

Dave has been with GVI in various capacities since April 2007 when he volunteered as an Expedition Member with GVI Costa Rica. After spending ten weeks on the expedition during the Leatherback turtle season Dave was offered an internship for the following ten weeks. This took him through the peak of the green turtle season allowing him to gain even more experience in field research techniques and project management. After a brief return to his native Wales (UK) Dave returned once more as a member of staff before being promoted into the role of Base Manager. During his internship Dave dedicated many hours to setting up, developing and running the Large Mammal Monitoring Programme and also had the opportunity to work with other organisations in Costa Rica, including the CCC and ANAI. As a result of his experiences, Dave feels very passionately about the quality of the work being produced by this expedition’s dedicated staff and Expedition Members. Dave is determined to maintain those standards and constantly looking to improve the expedition and GVI’s contribution to the Tortuguero area. During his degree, Biology BSc (Hons.), Dave worked with the Atlantic Whale Foundation in Tenerife, (Canary Islands) studying population dynamics in resident and migratory populations as well as working with local tourist operators to increase awareness of best practices for Whale and Dolphin Watching. For his dissertation, published in Origin, Dave developed a procedure for non-invasive genetic identification and differentiation of native British newt species, which are protected in the UK. Dave enjoys working with people of different skills and experience essential to the programmes’ running. He is always happy to help and is confident that his experience as a former volunteer will help Expedition Members get as much out of working here as possible.

Diogo Veríssimo - Staff Member

Diogo was born in Lisbon, Portugal. He soon decided he wanted to dedicate his life to conservation and at the age of 16 started working as an educator and a guide at the Lisbon Zoo. This position fuelled his passion for the natural sciences and two years later he entered a degree in Environmental Biology at the University of Lisbon. During this time he worked on conservation projects in Mexico, Uganda and Sri Lanka. Here he researched not only in animal conservation but also in tropical ecology, animal behaviour and developed several community projects. After completing his degree he decided to continue his science education and undertook a Masters program in Conservation Biology at the Durrell Institute of Conservation and Ecology, University of Kent, UK. Here he undertook a thesis on environmental awareness and marketing in the Seychelles. He went on to be a research assistant, prepared several research papers and book chapters awaiting publication in leading scientific journals and publishers. The desire to continue to make a difference through sound science while experiencing the immensely rich tropical rainforest brought Diogo to GVI Costa Rica. He looks forward to work with all those who have a passion for the natural world.

Brooke McIntyre - Staff Member

Growing up in rural New Zealand, Brooke has always had an enthusiastic interest for the outdoors and a strong devotion to wildlife and adventure. She studied a BSc in Zoology followed by a postgraduate Diploma in Wildlife Management at the University of Otago, Dunedin. She then went onto becoming TESOL certified and spent eight months teaching English in an elementary school in Japan. In pursuit of the opportunity to see and work with the captivating wildlife of the tropics, she booked herself a one-way ticket to Costa Rica and has not looked back since. She started out volunteering in Gandoca/Manzanillo Wildlife Refuge contributing to the conservation effort to save the critically endangered leatherback turtle. She was then lucky enough to experience the cloud forests of Monteverde, after being recruited as a resident naturalist at the University of Georgia/San Luis Ecolodge. She is now thrilled to be here on the canals of Tortugero, meeting like-minded individuals and contributing to the interesting array of projects carried out on the GVI Costa Rica expedition.