Franziska supports Nature Services Peru by assisting the organization to deepen its insight into how development cooperation and private actos can catalyse ecosystem services markets. She first gained experience in Peru during an internship in the Environmental Policy and Natural Resources Management department of the German Development Institute (DIE), where she contributed to the research project “Deforestation and Forest Degradation in the Peruvian Amazon” and gained a profound insight into the work of German Development Cooperation as well as Peruvian and international partners. A German national with family connections in Chile, Franziska has spent time in Latin America since her childhood, completing a student exchange in Chile and working in Argentina. Franziska holds a degree in Political Economics from the University of Bonn. For her thesis she developed a theoretical REDD+ model in order to analyse the influence of different parameters to the impacts of the REDD+ mechanism on a macro-scale. In her free time, Franziska enjoys cooking, taekwondo, surfing and travelling. 

Jessica supports Nature Services Peru with biological monitoring and outreach activities. From 1999 to 2006, she was Coordinator of the Frankfurt Zoological Society Giant Otter Conservation Project, implementing applied research and conservation activities for this species in protected areas of the Madre de Dios region of Peru. As Giant Otter Species Coordinator for the IUCN/SSC Otter Specialist Group, she catalysed the development of monitoring standards across the species distribution range. From 2006 to 2008, she was Technical Advisor to the North Luangwa Conservation Programme, Zambia, responsible for the monitoring of the reintroduced black rhino population, and managing the NLCP Conservation Education Programme, involving 9 schools. Since mid 2009 she has focused on analysing for publication 14 years of giant otter data, with the support of Oxford University’s WildCRU. Prior to her work in Peru and Zambia, Jessica worked for 4 years at the Netherlands Committee for IUCN as Coordinator of the European Working Group on Amazonia. Jessica has a Biology BSc from Imperial College, London, and an Aquatic Resource Management MSc from King's College, London. She is married to Frank Hajek, and has two children, Saba and Luca. In her free time she enjoys photography, travelling and reading. 

Mario specializes in finance of sustainable development and conservation projects. He worked as Projects Coordinator at the Research Centre for Social Development Assistance, Mexico. There he developed diverse capacity building projects with marginalized communities and rural organizations. In 2007, Mario joined the Economic Planning team of PEMEX – Mexico’s state oil company – and was part of the team responsible for the development of PEMEX’s first cogeneration project, aimed to implement an efficient, clean, and reliable approach to generating electricity and heat energy from a single fuel source, and reduce greenhouse gas emissions. In November 2009, Mario formed the team that designed and launched PEMEX’s Carbon Finance Office - the first of its kind within the Mexican Federal Government -where he is responsible for forestry and REDD emission reduction projects. Mario contributes to SePerú practical financial skills and knowledge of emerging carbon markets. Mario holds a BA in Economics from the Instituto Tecnológico de Monterrey and a Master in Financial Economics from the University of Oxford. He lives in Mexico City, but regularly escapes to visit communities in the mountains and jungles of Mexico’s southern states, deepening a lifelong inquiry into the links between conservation and local development.