I may be hardwired for international and environmental work. I grew up hiking, camping, and skiing in the high Sierras of California and with the idea that Mother Nature knows best. I come from a multicultural (Armenian, English, French), and multilingual (too many to list) family and spent most holidays and summers abroad. My first volunteer and paid positions were working with indigenous groups and environmental organizations in Ecuador, Mexico, and Tanzania. I was hopelessly interested in everything related to the interconnection of people and their natural environment. I completed graduate work in environmental science, policy, and economics. The three came together for me in the world of environmental advocacy.
I joined NRDC in 2005 as an Advocate for the Latin America BioGems Project. I design and implement campaigns to protect people, wildlife, and natural landscapes of Latin America from threats of foreign exploitation and insatiable consumer (often US) demand for the region’s natural resources. I have worked with NRDC to end the trade in illegally logged mahogany from Peru, close US markets to illegal forest products from around the world, and secure protections for the gray whale and vaquita porpoise in Mexico. I partner with local communities and groups for these campaigns. To me, they are the unsung heroes of environmentalism. I work to ensure that their voices do not go unheard in the national and international policy arenas.
Posted November 16, 2010 by Ani Youatt in Reviving the World's Oceans, Saving Wildlife and Wild Places
According to Science magazine, 2010 may be the worst year for coral die-off ever in the Caribbean due to abnormally warm waters since June. This spells the latest chapter of disaster for coral reefs; spectacular ecosystems that are often called...continued→
Posted April 20, 2010 by Ani Youatt in Reviving the World's Oceans, Saving Wildlife and Wild Places
Last month, the U.S. government made a courageous decision to stop imports of wild-caught shrimp from Mexico due to lack of compliance with US and Mexican turtle protection laws. U.S. inspections confirmed that many of the Mexican trawlers were not...continued→
Posted November 3, 2009 by Ani Youatt in Reviving the World's Oceans, Saving Wildlife and Wild Places
The World Series is heating up, but for me, the real home run from the past week is Mexico's decision to severely limit shrimp trawling in the Upper Gulf of California, Mexico -- the only home of the world's last...continued→
Posted August 19, 2009 by Ani Youatt in Reviving the World's Oceans, Saving Wildlife and Wild Places
It seems that every time we've secured a step forward for saving the highly endangered vaquita marina porpoise, we are then asked to take two steps back. A proposal from local fishermen this month to use large, industrial size...continued→
Posted June 17, 2009 by Ani Youatt in Environmental Justice, Saving Wildlife and Wild Places, Solving Global Warming
One of the key issues in Copenhagen climate change negotiations in December will be the creation of an international superstructure to provide incentives, and ultimately payments, to combat deforestation in tropical countries. As delegates from around the world gathered in...continued→
Posted November 20, 2008 by Ani Youatt in Reviving the World's Oceans, Saving Wildlife and Wild Places
I have been working for three years to save a species that almost no one has ever seen. Only a handful of fishermen and scientists have caught a glimpse of the rare and elusive vaquita porpoise that lives uniquely in...continued→
Switchboard is the staff blog of the Natural Resources Defense Council, the nation’s most effective environmental group. For more about our work, including in-depth policy documents, action alerts and ways you can contribute, visit NRDC.org.
