Winifred Hallwachs
Winifred Hallwachs (born October 11, 1954) is an American tropical ecologist who helped to establish and expand northwestern Costa Rica's Área de Conservación Guanacaste (ACG). The work of Hallwachs and her husband Daniel Janzen at ACG is considered an exemplar of inclusive conservation. Beginning in 1978, Winnie Hallwachs' early research focused on the Central American agoutis as seed hoarders and their effectiveness as seed dispersers of the hardwood tree guapinol. Beginning in 1985, Hallwachs and Janzen revised their work to include the restoration, expansion, and conservation of tropical dry forest through biodiversity development. They helped found the Instituto Nacional de Biodiversidad (INBio) in 1989, of which Hallwachs was a technical advisor, and promoted the creation of public-private partnerships such as the Merck-INBio Agreement. Hallwachs and Janzen founded the Guanacaste Dry Forest Conservation Fund (GDFCF) in 1997, and helped to establish the ACG in 1999. They have been active at all levels of education, ranging from local children to resident parataxonomists and North American tropical biologists. At least eight insect species have been named after Hallwachs. Life and work Early life and education Winifred Hallwachs was born on October 11, 1954. She grew up in New York State and Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.