Luis Gustavo Hernández has a strong interest in tropical forest conservation and biodiversity. He worked for many years on forest genetic diversity and DNA fingerprinting with the Centro Agronómico Tropical de Investigación y Enseñanza (CATIE), and more recently has been conducting research at the Institute for Forest Research Services (INSEFOR) in Costa Rica. He has extensive knowledge on tropical tree species such as Cedar (Cedrela odorata) and Mesoamerican Mahogany (Swietenia macrophylla), and has coordinated national research projects, such as the joint-university research project - “Monitoring of Ecosystems with Permanent Plots in Costa Rica”.

Gustavo’s fellowship with Bioversity focused on the effects of forest fragmentation on the genetic diversity and population fitness of Jícaro (Lecythis ampla), a tropical tree endemic to the forests of Central and South America. While Lecythis ampla is prized for its wood, sweet seeds and medicinal properties; its mating system, gene flow, phenology and demographic structure is being threatened by deforestation, logging and other forms of habitat destruction. Gustavo’s research therefore, aimed at studying the species’ genetic, demographic and reproductive responses to disturbance, by comparing species populations in human dominated landscapes to untouched natural forests in the northern region of Heredia in Costa Rica. With the help of numerous organizations, including the Laboratory of Entomology and Forest Pathology (IFFF) of BOKU University in Vienna, genetic diversity parameters were calculated and 17 specific nuclear microsatellite markers were developed for Lecythis ampla. Work is still being carried out on other population genetic parameters and publications of the results are expected in the near future.

Gustavo is currently working at the Institute for Forest Research and Services (INISEFOR) at the Universidad Nacional (UNA) in Costa Rica, where he specializes in monitoring forest ecosystems through permanent plots.