Conservation became ingrained in Filgueira as a youth growing up in an area designated for environmental protection in the country’s capital, Brasilia. Tropical forests are key to global health, but the Brazilian Amazon is facing degradation from unsustainable and unchecked agriculture, cattle ranching, logging, mining, and the effects of climate change.  

While a fellow at the Amazon Environmental Research Institute (IPAM), Filgueira provided technical support for research on forest degradation and its impacts on biodiversity, the carbon cycle, and water resources. She studied plant-pollinator interaction networks and bee biodiversity while working at the Laboratory of Insect Ecology at the Universidade De Brasilia, where she earned a bachelor’s degree in biology. At YSE, she is studying animals' contributions to forest structure complexity. She’d like to apply her research to climate change mitigation and biodiversity conservation efforts in Brazil.

“Given the complexity of advancing climate change solutions in the Global South, I am particularly interested in focusing on climate change mitigation through biodiversity conservation. I believe it is crucial to develop solid arguments and scientific research that demonstrate — to rural producers, decision-making politicians, and society as a whole — the importance of biodiversity protection, especially the maintenance of ecosystem services,” she said.