Maria Joana Silva

Dr. Maria Joana Ferreira da Silva, Ph.D. in Biosciences since 2012, is an FCT associated researcher in BIOPOLIS/CIBIO (CEECIND/01937/2017, 2019-2025). Before, she was an FCT-funded postdoctoral researcher (2013-2019, five months interruption for maternity leave). Her main research areas are Biological Anthropology and Conservation Biology. She investigates the relationship between human and African non-human primates and the impacts of anthropogenic activities on the distribution, socio-ecology, and conservation. The overarching goal is to improve management of threatened taxa in developing countries. She has been investigating African (threatened) primates in Guinea-Bissau, Tanzania, Mauritania, and Mozambique, using inter-disciplinary methods - ethnography, population genetics and genomics, and spatial ecology. She has published on themes such as biological anthropology, population and conservation genetics/genomics, perceptions on non-human primates, illegal wildlife trafficking, behavioural adaptations and human evolution. She is currently the PI of a project aiming to understand the illegal trade of primate meat in bars and restaurants in Guinea-Bissau, West Africa.