Stanley Heckadon-Moreno

Stanley Heckadon-Moreno (9 October 1943) is a Panamanian anthropologist, conservationist, writer and educator. He is an advocate for the preservation of tropical forests in Central America.

Heckadon Moreno grew up on the remote farm of his maternal grandparents Aurelio Moreno and Josefa Caballero de Moreno, who had migrated to these forests in the wake of the Thousand Days' War. From an early age Heckadon Moreno learned farm work and fishing in the rivers and the sea. In his childhood he contracted malaria three times. Upon his parents' divorce his mother decided to move to Panama City, Panama, where her son could receive better healthcare and a good education.

Education

Childhood Stanley Heckadon-Moreno attended the Colegio Javier in San Felipe (now Casco Viejo), Panama City from 1950 to 1958. He graduated from the San Vicente de Paúl School in David, Panama in 1960.

Postgraduate education Heckadon-Moreno was the first Panamanian to receive a scholarship in Social Sciences from the British Overseas Council, which allowed him to obtain his MA in Sociology in 1973 at the University of Essex, UK. He returned to the University of Essex in 1977 with a scholarship from the Ford Foundation, obtaining his PhD in Sociology. His thesis "Panama's expanding cattle front: The Santeno Campesinos and the Colonization of the Forests" in 1983 centered on the impact of extensive cattle ranging and slash-and-burn agriculture on tropical forests.

Ministry of Planning and Political Economy (Ministerio de Planificación y Politica Económica - MPPE) From 1972 to 1980, at MPPE, Heckadon-Moreno worked as a senior social scientist responsible for studies of policies towards indigenous people, the demarcation of their territories and the introduction in the National Constitution of 1972 of the rights of the indigenous people of Panama. He was also involved in the study of rural poverty among peasants in Panama and evaluation of rural cooperatives and the agrarian reform process.

International consultancy projects Between 1991 and 1994 Heckadon-Moreno worked for and with many institutions, amongst which the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), Summit of Americas and Social Emergency Fund of Panama (Fondo de Emergencía Social - FES) on projects on environmental profiles, research projects, scholarships and demarcation of protected areas. He has helped to establish several international centers amongst others the Center for Tropical Forestry Research (CIFOR) in Bogor, Indonesia and the Center for Water Research in Humid Tropics of Latin America (Centro de Agua del Trópico Húmedo de América Latina y el Caribe - CATHALAC) in Panama.

Station Director of Galeta Point Marine Laboratory, Colón From 2000 to 2020, Heckadon-Moreno led the Galeta Point Marine Laboratory on Galeta Island in Colón, Panama as staff scientist and station director.

Personal life Stanley Heckadon-Moreno married Sonia Martinelli Tono in 1976. Together they have two children.