Sergio Couto González

Galician biologist with an interest in the links between conservation of the territory and communal governance. Sergio led the first national study on ICCA-Territories of LIFE in Spain and is one of the co-founders of Iniciativa Comunales, an association of local communities governing commons in Spain. He has also been founding member and coordinator of the Common Lands Network in Europe, the Middle East and North Africa. He began his career in the field of wildlife conservation in several protected areas in Spain. He has also worked as an independent consultant for several NGOs and programmes (e.g. LIFE programme) of institutions such as the European Commission. He has recently worked as an innovation support agent for a European Innovation Partnership for Agricultural Productivity and Sustainability (EIP-AGRI) Task Force on common governance. Sergio is honorary members of the ICCA Consortium, and has been regional coordinator of the association from 2012 until 2021. Sergio is currently pursuing his PhD in the University of Granada (Spain) on ways of recognising the role of the communities governing commons in nature conservation. For Sergio, commons and other more innovative concepts such as ICCAs-Territories of Life are systems that embody powerful environmental, economic and social values, with enormous potential to contribute to solving many of the challenges of our time