Bro. Giovanni Onore, SM, an Italian scientist who has lived in Ecuador for 25 years, is the former director of the Museum of Invertebrate Zoology at the Pontifical Catholic University of Ecuador in Quito, and has campaigned against rain forest destruction in Ecuador since 1996. He is the coordinator of the the Otonga Nature Preserve and, as director of the Otonga Foundation, has raised funds to purchase more 3,700 acres of rain forest on the western slopes of the Andes. The goals of the foundation are biodiversity preservation and science education.

Before his time in Ecuador, Onore was in the Congo working with rural development, fruit, vegetable and grasses culture, crop protection, pest studies, and making entomological collections. His areas of study include biology, phytopathology, entomology, invertebrate zoology, arthropods, highland insects, insect pests and bees. He also has significant knowledge of nature conservation with a special emphasis in the Amazonian region.