Joel Andres Rojas Gonzalez

Joel Andres Rojas is a Dominican biologist, from the Autonomous University of Santo Domingo. His most notable research work to date has been the genetic and morphological description of freshwater turtle hybrids in the National Botanical Garden of Santo Domingo. Since 2019, Mr. Rojas has been a proactive member of his University as a representative of Public and International Affairs of the students of the degree in biology and treasury of the Dominican Society of Botany, in addition to having been a monitor of the subjects of Genetics and Cytology of the Bachelor's Degree in Biology.

Joel has worked on the implementation of the Nagoya and Cartagena Protocols of the CBD through the formulation of technical reports and preparation of ABS contracts with researchers from academia and companies. With 10 workshops carried out, covering the areas of botany, zoology, molecular biology, genetics and environmental doplomacy, Joel's range of action is wide and is proven by the presentations of five seminars and 3 publications carried out by him.

Coming from a small island developing state as a member of the LGBTQ+ community, his work and achievements have come with great challenges. For this reason, advocacy work for vulnerable communities, such as organizing local mobilizations for women and LGBTQ+ youth, has increased to help others realize their dreams, as well as participating in local conversations about the groups' needs. vulnerable. This work on human and nature rights served as inspiration for her participation in the Conference of the Parties 15 of the Convention on Biological Diversity, where she led the policy coordination of the Global Youth Network for Biodiversity (which represents young in the Convention on Biological Diversity) on contentious issues related to Digital Sequence Information (DSI) and synthetic biology (SynBio) to ensure that parties protect the rights of Indigenous Peoples and Local Communities (IPLC), women and young people in these areas and help the policy team with other aspects in regional meetings and networks. Joel will now assist in the implementation of the newly approved Kumming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Network in updating the National Biodiversity Strategy, where young people must be mentioned and included in the necessary means to ensure a successful archive of the objectives, where the protection of women, youth, PICL and LGBTQ+ must be prioritized.