Isabela Filgueira is a second-year Master of Environmental Science candidate at the Yale School of the Environment and a Three Cairns 2026 Scholar, specializing in tropical ecology and ecosystem services. Interested in quantifying wildlife contributions to forest structural complexity, she focuses on how seed dispersers support ecosystem stability in the agricultural frontiers of the Brazilian Amazon, a region also known as the Arc of Deforestation. At Yale, Isabela combines ecological approaches, GPS tracking, and remote sensing to assess how dynamic agricultural landscapes influence the movement of seed dispersers in nearby native forests and their role in dispersal and forest regeneration. She seeks to integrate biodiversity conservation into climate change mitigation strategies in the Global South. Before Yale, she worked at the Amazon Environmental Research Institute (IPAM), one of Brazil’s most impactful environmental research and advocacy organizations, collaborating with researchers focused on regenerative agriculture and biodiversity conservation. Beyond research, she is passionate about science communication and environmental education. In her free time, she enjoys traveling, cooking, exploring waterfalls, practicing martial arts, and engaging in creative crafts
