Raquel Gaião Silva is the Youth Ambassador for Climate Change

Raquel Gaião Silva, a 24-year-old biologist from Viana do Castelo, has been appointed Youth Ambassador for Climate Change. The young master's student in Biodiversity and Marine Conservation (EMBC) at the University of Algarve (UAlg) received this distinction after participating in Call Global Youth Video Competition, organized as part of the United Nations (UN) Climate Summit. She was also one of the winners of the Young Researchers' Award from GBIF - Global Biodiversity Information Facility, an international network for sharing biodiversity data, which enabled her to develop her research.

Raquel Gaião Silva's application to Call consisted of a mini-documentary video about Ocean Alive, a Portuguese cooperative dedicated to protecting the ocean, and the work was presented at the Climate Summit, which took place on September 23 in New York. The video was the first to be selected from among 400 candidates from around the world. Raquel now has a trip planned to Chile, where she will participate in the Conference of the Parties (COP25) next December.

Raquel currently collaborates with BlueBio Alliance, a private non-profit association whose mission is based on promoting relationships and dynamics between stakeholders and promoting entrepreneurship focused on marine bioresources and sustainable businesses.

The GBIF (Global Biodiversity Information Facility) network aims to provide open access to information on all types of life on the planet. Raquel Gaião Silva's research, supported by the Center for Marine Sciences (CCMAR) and data provided by GBIF, among other sources, focuses on the influence of ocean temperature on the distribution of macroalgae along the coastlines of Portugal and Spain, from the Bay of Biscay to the Strait of Gibraltar. The Portuguese Node of GBIF has been based at the Higher Institute of Agronomy of the University of Lisbon since 2015, under a protocol with the Foundation for Science and Technology. The aim of the Portuguese node of GBIF is to support national institutions in making national and international biodiversity data available.

Image credit: University of Algarve