Joaquin's Biography

Joaquin Murrieta-Saldivar, a citizen of the multicultural borderlands, was born in the Yaqui Valley in southern Sonora, Mexico and grew up in Hermosillo. He comes from a family of farming ejidatarios which are farmers who farm communally owned land. He studied agronomy at the University of Sonora and specialized in small-scale organic farming and agroecology at the University of California in Santa Cruz. He then moved to Tucson, AZ to get his Master of Science in Agricultural Economics and Natural Resources from the University of Arizona. 
 
After working on several environmental projects with the state government of Sonora he returned to Arizona for his Doctorate in Natural Resource Studies, also from the University of Arizona, specializing in human perception and relation to the natural world. 
 
He has collaborated with several regional and international organizations such as the Sonoran Institute, National Geographic Society, Environmental Defense Fund, and Watershed Management Group. Joaquinserves on boards of The Wilderness Land Trust and the Arizona Sonora Desert Museum. He is passionate about the “happiness” of rivers and the continued enhancement of a “culture of conservation-restoration” for the well-being of nature and humans. He resides in Tucson.


​Email: Joaquin Murrieta-Salvivar