Barbara trained as a tropical ecologist, doing field research in the Brazilian Amazon for Master’s (University of Guelph) and phd (Florida State University) degrees on an amphibian and reptile community in terra firme forest. Since 1989 she has been working with the Kayapo Indians of Brazil’s Xingu Basin to develop conservation-based economic alternatives to logging and to strengthen Kayapo capacity for territorial control so that they are able to continue to protect 100,000 km2 of their legally ratified territories from deforestation.. Barbara works closely with ICFC’s Kayapo NGO partners, other Brazilian ngos and government agencies, and, of course, the Kayapo people themselves.