– About Us –

› FOCUS

Capital Natural has an internationally recognized comprehensive approach, based on the principles of sustainability and compliance with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals.

Our proposals are based on a scientific approach based on results, providing powerful tools for making strategic decisions for our clients.

› PHILOSOPHY

Our philosophy is to offer the best solution or proposal based on holistic analysis, strengthening them with a specific communication strategy in order to achieve a greater impact and acceptance in the targeted audience.

Capital Natural is responsible for the implementation, monitoring and evaluation of said proposals.
Capital Natural also specializes in generating information and analysis for DECISION MAKING.

Capital Natural is an interdisciplinary group made up of specialists in various fields of biological, environmental and social sciences.

– The founding partners are: –

 › Carlos García Saéz

Executive Director

Expert in conservation and management of natural resources, with 23 years of experience in marine ecology and integrated coastal management issues. He has a BA from the National Autonomous University of Mexico and a Ph.D. in Ecology from the Imperial College of Science and Technology, University of London, a Diploma in Coastal Management from the University of Rhode Island, and postdoctoral work in fisheries at Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Sciences, University of Miami. He has extensive experience in issues of Marine Protected Areas, he was director of the Cayos Cochinos Marine Protected Area in the Bay Islands in Honduras. He was coordinator of the Mesoamerican Reef program (Honduras, Belize, Guatemala and Mexico) for the WWF.

He was a specialist in marine issues for the UNESCO World Heritage Center, in charge of the marine program, where he had the opportunity to work in the Caribbean, Colombia, Ecuador, Micronesia, the Philippines and the Mediterranean Sea on policies, governance and the Convention of the World Heritage. From 2009 to 2016 he worked in the National Commission of Protected Areas CONANP, first as director of Management Programs and later as director of wetlands and coastal-marine areas, implementing the Ramsar convention, the marine issues of the Commission for the Protection of the Environment (USA, Canada and Mexico) and public use plans. Since 2016, he has carried out consultancy work on coastal management, sustainable tourism and environmental impact in Mexico, Central America and the Caribbean, fisheries assessments to obtain the Marine Stewardship Council certification and recently the evaluation of the FAO-GEF project on climate change and fisheries in Chile.

 

› Gerardo Berges Pérez

Operations Director

Biologist with postgraduate studies at UNAM. He was professor of Ecology and Ecological Engineering at the same University and at the La Salle University School of Engineering respectively. He was the representative in Mexico of The AVINA Group based in Switzerland and based in Miami. Operational Director of Natural Resources Management SC. Director of the Fundación Música por la Tierra. Former Secretary General of the College of Biologists of Mexico A.C: General coordinator of the first editorial meeting of the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP) for the preparation of the first book Global Environmental Outlook for Youth. Co-responsible together with the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) and the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) of the first 2 international meetings and workshops on Sacred Natural Sites as intangible heritage of The humanity. General coordinator of the program “Sustainability and Eco-efficiency in the South Delegation of ISSSTE. First Mexican scientific diver recognized by the Confédération Mondiale des Activités Subaquatiques (France). Former advisor to the Technical Secretariat of the Presidency of the Republic for environmental issues. He is recognized as a “Master SCUBA Diving Trainer” by the Professional Association of Diving Instructors (PADI) based in the USA. He has designed and is the first instructor authorized by that Agency to teach the courses “Scientific Diver Specialist” and “Dolphin Diving Specialist”. He is responsible for the area of ​​sustainability and the environment of the tourist development “El Secreto” in Oaxaca. He has extensive experience as an independent consultant in sustainability, eco-efficiency and ecotourism projects. He has written in business magazines (Forbes, Ganar Ganar), Architecture (Link) and Popularization of Science (Symbiosis).

 

› Dr. Mónica Valle Esquivel

Lead Fisheries Scientist

Dr. Mónica Valle-Esquivel is an independent fishery consultant, with 24 years of experience in fisheries in sustainable management and conservation of marine fishery resources. Dr. Valle holds a PhD in Marine Biology and Fisheries from the University of Miami, Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science (RSMAS-UM) and a BSc in Biology from the National University of Mexico (UNAM).

During her Academic career, she specialized in fish and shellfish population dynamics, stock and ecosystem-based assessments, design and evaluation of fishery management strategies, statistical analysis, risk analysis, and fishery simulation modeling. She has led sustainability assessments for industrial and artisanal fisheries worldwide, particularly in North America, Latin America and the Caribbean. Dr. Valle has worked with global foundations and organizations, regional management agencies, scientific institutions, non-governmental organizations, and the fishing industry to promote and achieve sustainability of fishery resources around the world.

Dr. Valle worked with the University of Miami and NOAA Fisheries as a post-doctoral stock assessment scientist, also providing scientific advice to FAO, CITES, CARICOM, ACP Fish II, the Caribbean Fishery Management Council of NOAA and other international organizations for the management of tropical marine fishery stocks. In Mexico, she coordinated a United Nations (UNIDO) coastal management project within the Gulf of Mexico Large Marine Ecosystem Program.

Dr. Valle has wide experience leading multi-disciplinary groups of scientists in the analysis of ecological, social, economic, and policy components of marine resource conservation and management around the world. Between 2010 and 2023, she worked as Principal Scientist with MRAG Americas; her work involved the full planning, development, and leadership of marine conservation and fishery management projects. She is a certified Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) Assessment Team Leader and has participated in the certification of several fisheries, ranging from queen conch and spiny lobster in the Caribbean to highly migratory tunas and swordfish in the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans.

In the analysis and certification of different nations’ or regional tuna fisheries, Dr. Valle has engaged with scientists and managers from RFMOs, including the IATTC, ICCAT, and the WCPFC. Her work has involved scientific discussions with stock assessment scientists, and the review, interpretation of stock assessment reports produced by those agencies. Also, for each project, she retrieves and analyses summary fishery statistics for certain stocks, countries, gears, areas, periods, etc. Similar interactions with the Pacific Halibut Commission and NOAA fisheries have occurred for projects in Canada and the US for tunas and other large industrial fisheries (halibut, sablefish, groundfish, shrimp, etc,).

Relevant experience in Ecuador, includes leading a multi-disciplinary and multi-national team of scientists to carry out an ecological and social risk assessment of tuna fisheries for the World Bank (WB) in 2021-2022. The project involved a full ecological and social risk analysis of the purse seine and longline tuna fisheries of Ecuador using both, the International Finance Corporation (IFC-WB) methodology and the MSC standard. Previously, between 2014-2016, Dr. Valle conducted MSC Pre-Assessments of the purse-seine NIRSA-Eurofish-Grupo Jadrán) and longline (Transmarina) tuna fisheries and developed the Tunacons Fishery Improvement Project (FIP), which later became certified.