About: Anita Studer

Anita Studer (born February 26, 1944) is a Swiss-born accountant, ornithologist, conservationist and ecologist. Ever since 1980, Anita has been actively engaged in saving a forest in northeastern Brazil. She was born in Brienz; at the age of 12, she moved with her family to Geneva. She first visited Brazil in 1976 to observe its rich variety of birds. On her return, she pursued a master's degree in ornithology at Nancy-Université. Five years later, in Brazil, she first saw a rare blackbird Forbes's blackbird (Curaeus forbesi), known locally as "anumará", in the Pedra Talhada forest in the state of Alagoas. Her academic supervisor told her that the bird was a good subject for study but that the forest, the bird's habitat, would be gone in nine to ten years. The forest was being cleared to a