Short biographies of the participants

Carlos Pimenta works at the Laboratórios de Arqueociências of IGESPAR (Instituto de Gestão do Património Arquitectónico e Arqueológico) in Lisbon. His main research interest is concerned with the study of small mammals and birds archaeological assemblages from a paleo-environmental perspective.

Ian D. Rotherham, environmental geographer, ecologist and landscape historian, is Reader in Tourism and Environmental Change at Sheffield Hallam University. He is an international authority on cultural and historical aspects of landscapes, especially peat bogs and peatlands, and on fenlands and their history. He has researched and written extensively on both Yorkshire landscapes and their history and ecology, and on those of the fens and other English wetlands. His particular fascination is the transformation, often beyond recognition, of ancient landscapes by human activity. He also writes and broadcasts on environmental issues, and has regular columns in the Sheffield Star and the Yorkshire Post, and a phone-in on BBC Radio Sheffield. He has published over 300 papers, books and book chapters. He chairs and coordinates international conferences, research committees and networks.

Inês Amorim is Associated Professor at the Universidade do Porto. She teaches Economic and Social History of Early and Modern Times in the Department of History, Politics and International Studies (DHEPI), Faculty of Arts - Universidade do Porto, Portugal; She is a Researcher of CITCEM (Transdisciplinary Research Centre “Culture, Space e Memory).  Her main projects are   2008-2005, Coordinator of the Project SAL(H)INA - Salt History  - Nature and Environment - from XV to XIXth ( FCT-POCTI/HAR/56381/2004) (witch includes contributions from Jean Claude Hocquet, Peter Emmer, Antonio Di Vittorio, Erik Lindberg, and others). Since 2007 she is a research member of PWR -  Prices, Wages and Rents in Portugal 1500-1900/ Preços, Salários e Rendas em Portugal 1500-1900 - PTDC/HAH/70938/2006, coordinator: Jaime Reis (ICS), FCT. In 2006-2003 she was Researcher in the project HISPORTOS - Contribution to the study of Portuguese ports in the Northwest Early Modern History (POCTI/HAR/36417/2000). She has several international publications.

Maria José Roxo is the Head of the Geography & Regional Planning Department, Faculdade de Ciências Sociais e Humanas, Universidade Nova de Lisboa. Her main research interests embrace environmental issues, as land degradation, soil erosion, desertification and natural hazards. Since 1990, she has been involved in desertification scientific research and development coordinating work in Portugal for projects such as MEDALUS I, II and III, DESERTLINKS, MEDACTION, LADAMER, funded by the EU Programmes. She has also participated in other projects funded by the Portuguese government. Maria Roxo is a member of the National Committee to Combat Desertification.

Marta Moreno-García, archaeozoologist, is tenured scientist at the CSIC (Spanish Council for Scientific Research), Madrid. She has worked on archaeological faunal assemblages from Britain, Portugal and Spain. Her research focuses on the study of human/animal relationships in the past, paying special attention to environmental, economic, social and cultural aspects of such interaction.

Mauro Agnoletti is Associate Professor, University of Florence, Faculty of Agriculture, Department of Economy, Engineering, Science and Technologies for Agriculture and Forestry. Among other positions he is the Coordinator of the Working Group on Landscape, National Strategic Plan for Rural Development, 2007-13, Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Forestry, Rome and the Laboratory for Landscape and Cultural Heritage (CULTLAB), Faculty of Agriculture, University of Florence. He is an expert on European Landscape Convention, Council of Europe, Strasbourg, France; Expert evaluator, International Consortium of Monuments and Sites (ICOMOS), an expert for the Ministerial Conference on the Protection of Forest in Europe. He was also Vice-President, European Society for Environmental History. www.eseh.org 2005-2009. He is also at the present  Editor of a book series on environmental history, Springer Verlag international publisher. He has a vast  number of publications on forest and landscape History.

D. James Harris completed a PhD at the Natural History Museum, London and a postdoc in Utah, USA before working in CIBIO, Portugal where he has been since 1999. His interests are in the interpretation of DNA data for the understanding of relationships within and between species, with a particular emphasis on reptiles.

Pedro Picoito has a degree in History by the Universidade Nova de Lisboa; he is MA in Medieval Literature by the same university.He teaches at the Instituto Superior de Educação e Ciências- ISEC  (Superior Institute for Sciences and Education), Lisbon, since 2000. He also taught Medieval Political History at the Universidade dos Açores, Ponta Delgada, in 1999/2000. He is member of the IHM (Institute for Medieval History) at Universidade Nova de Lisboa and has published several articles and presented papers in political, cultural and religious medieval history like the “La Translatio de San Vicente de Sagres a Lisboa”, paper presented to the Premier Atelier de Formation en Études Médiévales. Les Échanges Entre Groupes Confessionels dans les Royaumes Chrétiens Ibériques et en Al-Andalus, Madrid, Casa de Velásquez, 6 Nov. 2008; “Les Saints de la Reconquête. Cultes de Guerre au Sud du Portugal (XIIe.-XIVe. Siècles)”, paper presented to Professor Jean-Claude Schmitt`s seminar at the École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales, Paris, 25 Nov. 2008

Stefanea Barca is a researcher of the Centre for Social Studies at the Universidade de Coimbra, where she coordinates the Center for Social Policy Studies, Work and Inequalities. She obtained her PhD in Economic History by University of Bari (Italy) in 1997. She worked in various Italian universities, where she lectured both Economic and Environmental History. In 2005-06 she was visiting researcher in the Agrarian Studies Program at Yale University, and from 2006 to 2008 she was a postdoctoral fellow 'Ciriacy Wantrup' at the University of California at Berkeley. She published a series of articles both in Italian and international scientific journals. Her last publication 'Enclosing Water, Nature and Political Economy in the Mediterranean Valley ' (Cambridge, UK: White Horse Press 2010) was awarded the Prize Turku as the best book in environmental history in Europe. Her new research project deals with industrial risk and the relationship between work and a transnational environment. She was recently elected vice-president of the European Society for Environmental History (ESEH).