Our team & community
A small, passionate team making big impact
MOYO Training Foundation is powered by a core team and supported by a wider group of trainers, local partners, and collaborators. What unites us is a shared love for nature and a commitment to tourism that restores, rather than depletes.
Core Team
Aukje van Gerven
Co-Founder & Manager
Aukje’s journey started with degrees in Law and History, but a bicycle trip from Tanzania back to the Netherlands ignited her love for adventure travel. When she finished her biking expedition, Aukje worked in the European nature conservation sector for over ten years, focusing on nature based tourism, travel, hospitality and events. For five years, she was in charge of wildlife tourism & training in the European rewilding areas. In 2023 she co-founded MOYO, which she now manages, developing new nature positive journeys, retreats and trainings.
Hayley Whyte
Content & Communications Officer
Hayley is an MSc student in Wildlife Conservation Management, and has travelled extensively in the last few years, participating in eco-tourism and volunteering, from Antarctica to the Amazon, which has further fuelled her sense of responsibility to protect our natural world. Hayley brings experience in wildlife conservation, storytelling, and field operations across Europe, Antarctica, and South America. She strengthens MOYO’s communications and helps share the impact of our trainings and journeys with our community.
Faustine Renault
Outreach & Social Media
Voeg je koptekst hier toe
our community of experts
Our wider community includes trainers, guides, local partners, and specialists such as wilderness educators, nature photographers, mindfulness facilitators, yoga teachers, community experts, and conservation practitioners. Together, they bring field knowledge, cultural insight, and deep ecological understanding to every programme.
Alina Floroi
local partner & community expert
Alina Floroi is passionate about finding treasures every day. Curiosity initially led her to journalism, but then exploration led to creating realities or helping other projects in this direction. She joined the WWF Romania initiative in Armeniș for several years in increasingly frequent collaborations, which turned into a full-time involvement in the WeWilder team as “a good at everything”, important skills to launch and keep the WeWilder Campus alive.
bas dorlandt
yoga teacher
Bas has worked as a professional dancer and choreographer for many years, both in The Netherlands and abroad. In 2004, he took his first yoga class and since then, yoga has been an indispensable part of his life. After obtaining his teaching diploma in Los Angeles in 2013, he has been a full-time teacher and has taught in Utrecht, Amsterdam, LA, San Francisco and Warsaw. He started his own yoga school, Home of Yoga, in 2017.
Fernando Teixeira
local partner & communications expert
Fernando was born close to the Greater Côa Valley region. After becoming a journalist and finishing his law degree, he returned to his origins to work in communication. Since 2019 he is working at Rewilding Portugal, currently as Head of Communication and Enterprise. Despite being a nature communication specialist, currently is also dedicating a bigger part of his role to promote a nature-based economy in the Greater Côa Valley.
georg messerer
Wildlife tracking & guide trainer
oana mondoc
local partner & Community expert
A campaigner, communicator, and mobilizer, bursting with passion and determination, Oana is driven by the pursuit of justice for the vulnerable and inspiration for the masses—this is her work. From hackathons to design+build workshops, tourism programs, and bringing the WeWilder Campus to life, each initiative began as an idea and took shape through adaptive project management and relentless drive. These efforts continue to support bison rewilding in the South Western Carpathians.
sandrijn v/d voort
mindfulness trainer
Sandrijn grew up with an early appreciation for the value of nature and its inhabitants. After working as a healthcare psychologist in mental health care, she realised she preferred to contribute in the field of prevention and she retrained in mindfulness and it’s combination with walking. This led to the founding of Soulpower, where she introduces people to the power of nature and helping them discover their inner strength.
Simon Collier
Co-Founder & tourism trainer
Born and raised in South Africa, Simon started his safari career working across a broad sector of the safari and tourism industry in Southern Africa. With experience from guiding through to managing camps, sales and marketing. Simon has spent the last decade supporting the development of the wildlife and tourism sector across ten countries in Europe, with a focus on sustainable business development and training within the nature based tourism sector. In 2023 he co founded MOYO.
Umberto Esposito
Wildlife Photographer & Guide
Since his childhood Umberto has lived in the historical area of the National Park of Abruzzo, Lazio and Molise. After graduating, he began his career as a nature guide, combining two great passions in one profession: nature and photography. In 2009 he founded a tour operator company whose mission is to bring people closer to nature. Umberto is also a vital part of several multi media projects in the Central Apennines.
fernando romão
Nature Guide & photographer
Fernando’s life has always been linked to nature conservation, natural history and ecotourism, and he was an activist in an environmental Portuguese NGO. His knowledge of the area has also allowed him to be involved in designing touristic routes and trails. Passionate about biodiversity, he has endeavours to get to know and photograph the species of Portugal’s biological heritage. This is one of the ways he has found to promote knowledge and conservation of biodiversity through photography.
samuel ribeiro
nature & cultural guide
Samuel is born and raised in Lisbon’s surroundings and has had contact with multiple outdoor activities throughout his youth. When he moved with his wife to the countryside, he created a tour company and started properly learning about nature and hospitality, while applying his valuable skills of sales and customer service. Life is now not about doing stuff in nature, but understanding and adding value tó nature and the local community.
Valeria Roselli
Nature & Wildlife Guide
Since she was a child, Valeria walked along the paths through the forest of the mountains where she was born. Her curiosity led her to explore and get to know the territory. Her love of nature and for the Abruzzo mountain’s became her passion, which then became her profession. She is now a nature guide, environmental interpreter and international mountain leader, and one of the most expert guides in the Italian Apennines.
valerio reale
local partner & hospitality expert
Valerio started traveling after his degree in Gastronomic Sciences, and worked in the UK in the food and organic farming industry. He is a great fan of agro ecology and rewilding as a concrete alternative to conventional food and farming practices. From 2020, he is the Enterprise Manager of Rewilding Apennines with the aim to develop a nature-based network of enterprises that can benefit from the rewilding activities in the Central Apennines.
Petra draskovic-pelc
nature & wildlife guide
Petra holds a PhD in Biomedical science but decided to turn her hobby (photography and travel) into her profession in 2015. Since then she works as a professional photographer, responsible nature guide, certified tourist & interpretive guide. She loves wild nordic lights, solitude in the forest, as well the spirit of the wilderness of her home – Kočevsko, the secret forest of Slovenia.
Marco Ferraz
Nature & cultural Guide
Marco Ferraz has worked in Côa Valley since 2011 as a Nature Guide and Environmental Educator. Marco Ferraz loves to stimulate activities to bring kids and adults in contact with nature and is an official tour operator at the Greater Côa Valley, Douro International National Park, and at the Côa Valley Archeological Park (Unesco World Heritage Site since 1998).
stef lauer
nature guide & rewilding trainer
Stef grew up in Germany but moved to Scotland nearly 20 years ago. She is based in the Cairngorms and regularly guides rewilding experiences. Her career incorporates hospitality management, nature-based tourism, guiding, training and outdoor education. Connecting people and place is central to all the work she does.