User talk:Hmatallo

Heitor Matallo Junior is a sociologist at the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification who has been working on epistemological issues since 1994. He has worked in a pioneer research on the impacts of social behaviour on environment in 1994 in a small city of Gilbues, Piaui, Brazil in cooperation with Valdemar Rodrigues, who discovered the area as one of the most affected by desertification in the world.

Career

Matallo studied physics at Universidade de Brasilia, Brazil in the years 1974 – 1976 and had been deeply involved in the political raids against the dictatorial government at the university campus. In 1977 he moved to Sao Paulo and started studying Social Sciences at Universidade Catolica de Sao Paulo until 1981. From 1982 to 1984 he attended the Master Course in Epistemology at the Universidade de Campinas.

In 1984 he started his professional career as a researcher and professor at the Federal University of Piaui (1984 – 1992) and during that period he occupied different posts including the presidency of the research department of the university. His first publications started in this period (see bibliography).

In 1992 he moved to Brasilia and started working in the Ministry of Planning as well as in the organization of the national regional activities in preparation of the negotiation process of the Convention to Combat Desertification. In this capacity he organized the First National Conference and Latin American Seminar on Desertification in 1994, which had a key role in the whole negotiation process. During this meeting the Latin American and Caribbean Annex for the Convention was prepared and approved by LAC countries

He had occupied many different positions in the Brazilian Government such as the Coordinator of the Aridas Project in the Ministry of Planning (1994 – 1995), the Special Adviser of the Minister of Environment (1995 – 2000) and Director of the Brazilian National Programme to Combat Desertification in the same period.

In 2002 he joined the Secretariat of the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification as Chief of the Regional Coordinating Unit for Latin America and the Caribbean, based in Mexico. In February 2007 he has moved to Bonn to work in the UNCCD HQs as Programme Officer for Latin America and the Caribbean and since 2008 he is working as Programme Officer for Science, Technology and Knowledge Management.

In 2008 he was awarded by the Minister Marina Silva for his contribution to the development of public policies against desertification in Brazil.