Salvador Peris

The road ecologists spend much of our time trying to build bridges, wildlife crossings, to connect wildlife populations. Life is connection, life is network. Less than a year ago we launched the Latin American and Caribbean Transportation Working Group (LAC TWG), a nice networking initiative. But to do so, we first had to connect what was previously isolated. And one of the people who contributed especially to give us that connectivity, structural and functional, was our friend Salvador Peris. Salva, PhD in Biology and director of the UNESCO Chair of Sustainable Development at the University of Salamanca (Spain), was always in love with life, biodiversity and Latin America. He contributed with his charisma, with that way of leaving his mark wherever he went, to some of the first steps of road ecology in Latin America. Without him, many of us who are here today would not have met; we owe him many stories, landscapes and friends. He will always be in our memory and perhaps the best tribute we can pay him is to continue on the beautiful road that he helped to start, with his joy, with his passion.