HAUREZ Barbara

Biography

As a child and adolescent, Barbara Haurez loved walking in the forest and picking mushrooms. Neither primates nor the tropics featured in the dreams of her youth! Moreover, when she joined Gembloux Agro-Bio Tech, in 2006, she had the firm intention of working in the food industry. A course in entomology given by Professor Eric Haubruge changed her mind. She became infected by the tropical forest virus which became a preoccupation from the third year of her Baccalaureate onwards. She readily imagined herself roaming through the Amazon forest in search of Lepidoptera and other six-legged creatures. She then changed direction again: during the first year of her masters, Professor Jean-Louis Doucet, head of the Forestry Laboratory of Tropical and Subtropical Regions, suggested that she do a thesis on seed dispersal by the gorilla (2009).

Her Master thesis, focussing on the interaction between gorillas and forest expoitation, was directly continued in her doctoral thesis which was financed by a FRIA grant. This doctorate was also financially supported by the Regional Post-graduate Training School of integrated management of tropical forests and lands (ERAIFT), at Kinshasa. The thesis, entitled ¿The role of the western lowland gorilla (Gorilla gorilla gorilla) in the regeneration of dense humid forests and its interaction with the selective timber exploitation¿ was defended in November 2015. The chapters from this work have been published in six scientific journals (Biotechnology, Agronomy, Society and Environment; Biodiversity and Conservation; Journal of Tropical Ecology; Bois et Forêts des Tropiques; Forest Ecology and Management; African Journal of Ecology).  Following her PhD, in January 2016, she began a post-doctorate which led to concrete proposals for the management of Intact Forest Landscapes in central Africa.

Today, Barbara Haurez works as First Assistant at the Laboratory of Tropical Agroecology. Her scientific work focus on the conciliation of food production and environmental sustainability in tropical familly farming.