Udo Nehren is a senior researcher and lecturer in Physical Geography and Ecosystem Management at the Institute for Technology and Resources Management in the Tropics and Subtropics, TH Köln - University of Applied Sciences, Germany. He received a PhD degree in Geography from Leipzig University, Germany and a habilitation in Geography from University of Passau, Germany. His research emphasizes landscape evolution, ecosystem-based disaster risk reduction and adaptation, and ecosystem management with regional foci in Latin America and Southeast Asia. Udo Nehren is author and editor of books and articles related to these topics and one of the developers of the Massive Open Online Course "Disasters and Ecosystems: Resilience in a Changing Climate". Sabine Schlüter is a professor and senior researcher in Environment and Resource Economics at the Institute for Technology and Resources Management in the Tropics and Subtropics at TH Köln - University of Applied Sciences, Germany. She holds a PhD in Agricultural Sciences from the University of Bonn, Germany. Her research areas include valuation of environmental goods/services, farm system analysis, regional sector modeling, irrigation management/governance and food production chain analysis. Claudia Raedig gained her PhD degree in Biology from Leipzig University, Germany. She works as a senior researcher and lecturer in the field of Biodiversity and Connectivity Conservation at the Institute for Technology and Resources Management in the Tropics and Subtropics at TH Köln - University of Applied Sciences, Germany. Her research focuses on connectivity conservation management, particularly on the development of strategies for enhancing connectivity for biodiversity conservation in tropical and coastal ecosystems in Southeast Asia and Latin America. Dietmar Sattler is a biologist and senior researcher at the Institute of Geography, Leipzig University, Germany. He holds a PhD degree in Botany and Urban Ecology from the Leipzig University. His research emphasizes tropical forest fragmentation and carbon stock assessment, forest conservation strategies, and the assessment and rehabilitation of land degradation. He coordinated and participated in several international research and development projects mainly in Brazil with a focus on sustainable land use management and biodiversity conservation.  

Helga Hissa is a senior soil researcher at EMBRAPA – the Brazilian Agricultural Research Corporation working at the Secretariat of Agriculture, Livestock, Food Supply and Fisheries of the State of Rio de Janeiro where she acts as technical coordinator of the Sustainable Rural Development Program - Rio Rural. She also leads projects in the area of Sustainable Agriculture and Ecosystems Services with support of the Global Environment Facility, World Bank, Inter-American Development Bank and the United Agency for Food and Agriculture. She is an agronomist engineer and earned a MSc degree in Soil Sciences from the Rural University of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Her work focuses on conservation agriculture, ecosystem services, and environment-agriculture integrated policies aiming at sustainability of conservation agriculture by smallholders.