Our Story
The Savia Foundation, Inc. is a U.S.-based non-profit organization established in 2024. We are a group of storytellers, conservationists, scientists and lawyers who use our expertise to document, protect and defend biodiversity through land protection and restoration, photographic and videographic storytelling, and education and species monitoring. We work with local stakeholders to foster sustainable, harmonic relationships between humans and the environment.
WE BELIEVE IN THE RIGHTS OF NATURE.
Wild ecosystems and the people that depend on them have the inalienable right to exist and to thrive.
And we use our strengths and expertise to help defend these Rights.
WE BELIEVE IN THE RIGHTS OF NATURE.
WE BELIEVE IN EMPOWERING PEOPLE.
Those people living most closely with an ecosystem should the drive the push for conservation through their first-hand knowledge and their ability to project conservation into the future.
We listen, dialogue, support and help amplify their efforts.
WE BELIEVE IN THE POWER OF STORYTELLING.
Photography and videography can gather reliable data on wildlife and generate images with an impact, convincing others to join our cause.
And the tourism they generate can be a powerful economic means for the people who live with and care for natural ecosystems.
Meet Our Board
Nicolas Devos
President
Nicolas Devos, Ph.D., is a biologist and wildlife photographer based in Boston, Massachusetts. His professional career has been dedicated to genetic sequencing, first in the academic and then in the private sectors. Born in Belgium, his work has taken him to South Africa, North Carolina and Massachusetts.
He co-founded the Chontayacu Reserve and pursues camera trapping worldwide to raise awareness and gather data for conservation. He's happiest behind the lens of a camera, or trekking down a forest trail– even if only to retrieve the SD of a camera trap that has been pawed down by a jaguar.
Alex Roessner
Vice-President
Alex Roessner is passionate about finding innovative solutions to the global biodiversity crisis. His interest in the Earth’s natural cycles and the anthropogenic disruptions affecting them led him to take up photography and advocate for change. In late 2023, Alex co-founded SYMBA, a blockchain startup optimizing resource flow to global conservation projects through impact investment and large-scale functional conservation efforts enhanced by data processes.
Alex is currently developing automated systems for classifying and analyzing camera trap data, aiming to streamline R&D processes and accelerate conservation project development. Alex advocates for an anti-colonialist approach in conservation, emphasizing the importance of integrating indigenous knowledge and perspectives. He is finishing his bachelor’s studies in economics, environmental policy, and Chinese (Northwestern '25).
Nathaly Padilla
Chief Legal Officer
Nathaly Padilla is an environmental lawyer passionate about Nature and environmental conservation. Born and raised in the Galapagos Islands, Nathaly grew up in an environment closely related to unique wildlife and protected ecosystems. She is convinced that the law is a powerful tool to articulate a harmonious relationship between humanity and Nature.
Nathaly's professional career has been developed in the Galapagos National Park, the Ecuadorian Ministry of Environment, private companies, and non-profit organizations. Nathaly is co-founder and President of Savia Fund, an Ecuadorian Non-profit. She is leading an environmental education project to create the first children's book about the Rights of Nature in the Galapagos.
Chief Conservation Officer
Lucas Bustamante
Lucas Bustamante has been bitten by countless snakes, dived with whale sharks, and learned from indigenous peoples. Since childhood, he grew up around the Ecuadorian outdoors and became a passionate biologist and an environmental photojournalist.
Lucas's primary objective is to use photography to promote environmental and wildlife conservation. He co-founded Tropical Herping, a nature and photo tourism company, and the Ecuadorian nonprofit Savia Fund. He is an author of books like Reptiles of Ecuador and has described 13 new species for science. Lucas is a successful photographer who has been published in magazines like National Geographic and Geo, was named Wildlife Photographer of the Year and is a Nature’s Best prizewinner. He is a member of the International League of Conservation Photographers (iLCP), and Nature Picture Library represents his images.
Felipe Álvarez de Toledo
Treasurer & Secretary
Felipe Alvarez de Toledo, Ph.D., is a graphic facilitator and illustrator with an academic background in Art History and Economics. Professionally, he uses visual tools and facilitation techniques to help diverse voices come to shared solutions that make the most of individual knowledge and expertise. His combined expertise in writing, research, meeting facilitation and big picture thinking helps drives conversations, develop projects, write grants and communicate effectively with the larger public.
Felipe is part Spanish, part Argentine, and has landed in Boston after a lifetime traveling the world. By now, his sketchbooks are filled with doodles of Andean Bears, armadillos, and the flora and fauna of the tropics.
