Master of Environmental Science or Master of Forest Science — MESc or MFS

Financing Community-led Climate Action in Africa

As a YSE student, Rita Effah ’12 MFS participated in COP 17 in Durban, South Africa. She says her experience at the annual U.N. climate change conference was the catalyst that sparked her interest in working to mitigate climate change impacts in Africa.

Now a senior climate finance officer at the African Development Bank, Effah is managing the Africa Climate Change Fund, which implements small grant projects in 28 African countries.

Experiments in Reducing Methane Emissions

Researching natural ways to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, Ben Girgenti ’22 MESc tested whether adding minerals to wetland ecosystems can reduce biological methane emissions. After adding iron to the soil of mini wetlands, Girgenti found that methane was reduced by the mineral enhancement.

“If you’re building or using wetlands for natural carbon capture, you could shut off or decrease methane emissions, reducing the amount of time it takes for wetlands to begin having new sequestration of carbon,” Girgenti says.

Tracking Bear Movements

After Rae Wynn-Grant ’10 MESc studied bears in the Nevada mountains, the National Geographic Society sent her to conduct similar work with the American Prairie Reserve in the grasslands of Montana — a region where bears are not common.

The nonprofit is seeking create a national wildlife refuge. Wynn-Grant began working with carnivores while at YSE, tracking lions in Tanzania. She has leaned on her expertise to predict which habitats will attract bears, using state and federal data and camera traps to monitor bear movements and habitats.

Bishwabandhu Acharya, Nepal

Goal: Model climate-related disturbance and integrate forest management strategies to develop nature-based climate solutions

Forest restoration through sustainable management practices in Nepal can advance nature-based climate solutions. Forest fires in the country, however, are altering composition and growth rates and making forests more vulnerable to disease. There were more than 5,000 wildfires in Nepal in 2024, and climate models predict the country will face more frequent drought conditions. 

Bishwabandhu Acharya ’26 MFS is researching how disturbances such as fires impact the health and regenerative capabilities of forests. 

Where Capital Meets Conservation

The art and science of raising and deploying capital for conservation is at the heart of the work being done by Leigh Whelpton ’12 MESc. She is executive director of The Conservation Finance Network. “You often hear people talk about how there’s not enough money,” says Whelpton. “That’s not quite true. It’s a lack of capacity and connection, a lack of risk-adjusted return opportunities, and a limited supply of projects that can meet the requirements for financing. We focus on increasing the project pipeline and scaling up capacity to get more money on the ground.”

Empowering Young Leaders

In July, Indonesia hosted the Y20 Summit, an annual gathering of youth leaders from G20 nations. This year's summit emphasized a sustainable and livable planet, and its recommendations will be presented at the upcoming G20 Summit in November. Caroline Tasirin ’19 MFS — a lecturer in the forestry program at Indonesia’s Sam Ratulangi University and co-founder of SULUT Semangat, a program that empowers Indonesian youths to connect with nature — represented the host nation and served as co-chair of the selection committee for Indonesia. “I'm proud to have contributed my insight and honored to collaborate with diverse youth leaders,” she says. 

Redefining Human-Wildlife Conflict

In the Tibetan Plateau, Yufang Gao ’14 MESc, ’23 PhD interviews, observes, and travels with Tibetan herders and Buddhist monks. He sets up camera traps and collects scat to analyze the diet of snow leopards. And he has hiked a mountainside 15,000 feet above sea level — all in pursuit of data for his dissertation focused on the quest for harmonious coexistence between people and large carnivores. What is needed for human-wildlife coexistence is a different perspective about conflict, Gao says. “Conflict,” he has found, “is part of coexistence.”

Sofi Montalvo Yánez, Ecuador

Goal: Generate and communicate science to preserve ecosystems and biodiversity

Ecuador, where Sofía Montalvo is from, is one of the world’s most biodiverse countries. Climate change, however, is exerting intense pressure on many of the country’s ecosystems. Forest habitats are disappearing due to local extractive economies. 

“Ecuador has many excellent people and a lot of potential, but we need someone to offer encouragement and support to get different environmental projects going,” Montalvo says. “I want to be that person.”

Isabela Filgueira Campos, Brazil

Goal: To advance climate change mitigation by contributing to our understanding of the factors that influence ecosystem services in tropical forests

Brazil’s conservation efforts are greatly affected by agribusiness’ impact on its tropical forests. It is at this intersection of agricultural practices and forest conservation that Isabela Filgueira Campos ’26 MESc hopes to make a positive impact.

Mapping Panama’s Sustainable Farmlands

A researcher for the Environmental Leadership & Training Initiative, Cecilia Rogers ’22 MFS is mapping the success of ELTI’s Panama program that helps cattle ranchers incorporate sustainable practices, such as the use of forested pastureland, into their land management.

Working with fellow students, she found that the amount of sustainably managed farmland had significantly increased from 4% in 2011 to 66% in 2020.

Incentivizing Conservation in Panama

As Panama’s first minister of the environment, Mirei Endara de Heras ’94 MESc promoted sustainable development, incentivized reforestation, developed a water security plan to bolster the Panama Canal, and built alliances with other rainforest nations.  Most recently, she helped establish Marea Verde (Green Tide), a nonprofit that utilizes clean technologies and artificial intelligence to identify and retrieve river plastics to restore waterways for communities.

“Our goal is to empower residents to improve conditions in their communities,” she says. “People will take action if it has an economic and/or social benefit.”

Ananya Rao, India

Goal: Work with India’s Indigenous communities and smallholder farmers to reclaim natural resource rights.

Ananya Rao ’25 MESc saw the impact of climate change on Indigenous communities in India while working in the country’s forested Tribal regions and agrarian hinterlands. She was struck by the inadequacy of top-down solutions designed to mitigate these impacts —such as providing subsidized chemical fertilizers to improve crop yields when those fertilizers ultimately exacerbated the problems they were intended to address. These early experiences shaped her desire to work with frontline communities to leverage their knowledge in adapting to the ecological crises they face.

Preserving China’s Biodiversity

As the executive director of the Shan Shui Conservation Center in China, Irene Xiangying Shi ’13 MESC is helping conservation efforts in the Tibetan Plateau and southern regions. The Center focuses its work on urban ecosystems and endangered species, such as giant pandas and snow leopards. 

“If we have the right incentives,” she says, “people will conserve nature in the best way." Her efforts have helped build a biodiversity conservation alliance, an information sharing platform on biodiversity, and long-term funding mechanisms to continue work on these issues.