Gustavo Danemann

Gustavo D. Danemann is the Executive Director of Pronatura Noroeste A.C. He initiated his career as a marine biologist in 1984 studying birds, fish, wetlands and natural protected areas along the Baja California Peninsula. His further professional development focused on policy analysis and natural resources administration, topics that motivated his doctoral research.

Gustavo was hired in 1997 by the former Pronatura Península de Baja California, to carry out the identification of conservation priorities that based the first Pronatura´s conservation planning. As Program Coordinator and Conservation Director, he was in charge of the Bahía de los Ángeles Conservation Program, which resulted in the creation of the Bahía de los Ángeles Biosphere Reserve. In July 2007 he was designated as Executive Director of Pronatura Noroeste AC, which includes not only the Baja California Peninsula but the Gulf of California and its islands, the states of Sonora, Sinaloa and Nayarit, Chihuahua and Durango along the Sierra Madre, the coast of Jalisco and the Exclusive Economic Zone of Mexico in the Pacific Ocean corresponding to those states –almost half of the Mexican territory. Since 2007, Pronatura Noroeste grew to integrate a 100+ staff, eight operative offices and 11 regional conservation programs.

An active diver since 1976, Gustavo worked as dive master and nature guide in the Sea of Cortez for almost ten years. His relationship with the sea and the ocean wildlife, together with his academic knowledge of these topics, is reflected in an extensive list of publications and photographic work, published in books and Mexican and international journals and magazines.