Jon Paul Rodriguez is a Venezuelan Professor at the Center for Ecology of the Venezuelan Institute for Scientific Investigations (Instituto Venezolano de Investigaciones Científicas― IVIC), and he is a founder, past Board Member (1987-2001, 2009-2012) and President (2001-2008, 2013-present) of Provita (a Venezuelan conservation NGO established in 1987). Dr. Rodriguez was awarded with a Fulbright scholarship to obtain his Ph.D. in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at Princeton University (1999). He currently chairs the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Species Survival Commission, and was actively involved in the development of the IUCN Red List of Ecosystems, an initiative led by the Commission on Ecosystem Management. Dr. Rodriguez’s work focuses on understanding patterns in the spatial distribution of threatened species and ecosystems, as well as the underlying causes of these patterns, and the development of policy guidelines for biodiversity conservation.