Katie Lois Hutchinson has long been fascinated by the living world. Growing up next to the beach in Kent, England, she gained a unique perspective on the changing elements of nature and has carried this intrigue throughout her education. Katie is currently a fourth year PhD Biology Researcher working within the Nature-based Solutions Initiative (NbSI) at the University of Oxford. Her academic research focuses specifically on Climate Change Adaptation and the ways in which Nature-based Solutions (NbS) can help those in the tropical Andean region of South America adapt to the challenges that they are facing. 

Katie carried WINGS Flag #40 on her expedition, Tech and TEK: Giving voice to female forest protectors of Amazonian Ecuador. With the help of a Kichwa speaking translator, Katie worked alongside Indigenous communities on the eastern Andes-Amazon border in Ecuador, employing a variety of methods to capture her data including interviews and focus groups with local communities, bioacoustic analysis, camera traps and invertebrate activity analysis. Katie aims to demonstrate the potential of Nature-based Solutions, and explore how species, ecosystems and communities are responding to their implementation.

Biodiversity loss and climate change are inextricably linked. Ecuador, one of the smallest countries within the Amazonian forest, is highly diverse, culturally and ecologically rich, and in dire need of engagement and exploration. The purpose of Katie’s expedition was twofold: to celebrate the unique beauty of Kichwa-stewarded Amazonian forests and to bring attention to the challenges they are facing with conserving ancestral land(s) and the species that they share space with. Katie is working to amplify the voices of Indigenous women and highlight their profound understanding of the forest and its intricate ecosystems. She is achieving this by documenting ancestral medicine and extraordinary ecological knowledge, and sharing these perspectives more widely via the creation of a small book for local dissemination.

Katie is an advocate for nature, and believes being a voice for the Amazon is the loudest shout for nature possible. She carried the WINGS Flag to show women and girls worldwide that despite the challenges we face, we are strong, resilient, capable and powerful stewards.