Ilad is one of 17 inaugural members of the IUCN Youth Advisory Committee (YAC). The first of its kind, the YAC was launched in April 2024 to support the implementation of the IUCN Youth Strategy across the Union. The YAC is comprised of youth from across the globe, each bringing their own diverse experiences to support meaningful youth engagement in IUCN’s policies, processes and programmes. Get to know Ilad and other YAC members as we introduce them.
Hi everyone, my name is Ilad Vivas. I am a conservation biologist and criminal law attorney dedicated to the conservation of threatened species, mitigation of human-wildlife conflict, protected areas management, and conservation networking. My research is focused on behavioral ecology, population ecology and conservation of carnivores, particularly the biology and ecology of wild felids and canids.
I received my Law diploma in 2012, from Universidad Santa María in Caracas, Venezuela. Then I finished my Criminal Law MSc. in 2016 at the same university. Later, in 2019 I received my Biology diploma from Universidad Central de Venezuela. In 2022 I finished my Biodiversity MSc at Universidad Autónoma de Madrid. For the time being I’m pursuing my PhD in biology, and who knows what the future holds.
Since 2015, my work was focused on jaguars and other felid species in Venezuela, at Instituto Venezolano de Investigaciones Científicas, first as an undergrad student, and later as an associated professional until 2021. Also, from 2019 to 2021 I was Research Coordinator at Instituto Nacional de Parques, where I implemented a group of activities for managing Protected Areas, setting the field for inter-institutional collaborations with universities and NGOs. Nowadays, I’m working as a Research Technician at Universidad Autónoma de Madrid on cattle ranchers-wolf conflict mitigation, focusing my research in chemical communication between canids.
I joined IUCN in 2020 as a member of the Conservation Planning Specialist Group (CPSG). Then, in 2023 I joined the Young Professionals Task Force (YPTF) and was nominated as Regional Coordinator for the America’s Chapter. Recently I was promoted as Co-chair of the YPTF, a position in which I’m working to give a voice for early career conservationists in the actions that are being taken to conserve biodiversity worldwide.