Leonel Lara-Estrada joined NRI at the beginning of 2020. He moved from Germany, where he did his doctorate on evaluating the potential for adaptation and mitigation of agroforestry systems to climate change, at the R.U. Sustainability and Global Change of the Hamburg Universität (2019). He obtained an M.Sc. degree in Tropical agroforestry from The Tropical Agricultural Research and Higher Education Center (CATIE) in Costa Rica, his Master’s thesis describes the effects of biophysical factors on the coffee quality and productivity. He completed his B.Sc. degree in Agronomy at the Universidad Nacional Agraria in Nicaragua, his thesis describes the response of different common bean genotypes to mineral fertilization.

After his Master’s degree, Leonel has worked in research and development for the industry and academy. He worked as R&D coordinator for ECOM-Coffee group in Nicaragua (2006-2009) where he was in charge of validating and promoting the use of new coffee hybrids in agroforestry systems as a sustainable intensification strategy for coffee production in the Central American Region. Next, he worked for CATIE in a pilot project to develop a Weather-Index Insurance for coffee in Nicaragua and Honduras (2010-2011). After this, he became a guest researcher at the R.U. Sustainability and Global Change, where he worked in the development of a model to infer the quality of the coffee produced in Nicaragua (2013-2014). Then, Leonel worked in a pilot-project implemented by the World Coffee Research (WCR) and RD2Vision, where Leonel led the activities to identify the threats for coffee production in El Salvador, and the possible farming adaptation practices to face the expected impacts of climate change on the coffee areas in the country (2018).

In parallel, Leonel had been invited to participate as an instructor/speaker in courses and workshops on sustainable agriculture from universities, NGOs and local technical schools (2006-2011, 2017); the topics included agroforestry, coffee breeding, best farming practices, and others.
During this career, Leonel has collaborated and interacted with researchers, practitioners, decision-makers, and farmers; and local and international organizations.