National Geographic Explorer, Conservationist, Researcher

Renato Saragoça Bruno is a National Geographic Explorer, conservationist, and researcher dedicated to community-based wildlife stewardship. A researcher with an M.Sc. from Southeastern Louisiana University and a Ph.D. from the University of Florida engaged on understanding, communicating, and addressing the challenges facing endangered species.

He began his career in the Brazilian Amazon, where his work in fisheries management sparked a lasting interest in the sustainable use of natural resources by traditional communities. This perspective led him from Amazonian rivers to the Caribbean coast of Central America, where he focused on the conservation of sea turtles—species that, like Amazonian fish, have long supported coastal livelihoods. Since 2013, Bruno has conducted research on Caribbean green turtles (Chelonia mydas), spanning nesting beaches in Costa Rica and foraging grounds in Nicaragua, where one of the largest remaining legal sea turtle fisheries persists. His work examines how climate change, nutrition, and harvest pressures shape Caribbean green turtle populations. In 2018, he founded Turtle Love (@turtlelove.cr), a community-based conservation nonprofit working on Costa Rica’s Caribbean coast to strengthen local engagement in wildlife conservation.