Raffaele’s lengthy experience in Puerto Rico coupled with his graduate work in ecology provided excellent preparation for the position he took in 1983 with the US Fish and Wildlife Service as coordinator for the agency’s Latin America and Caribbean program. During a 12-year stint in this capacity, Raffaele chose not to take a typical approach of focusing on threatened species and habitats throughout the region and engaging in efforts to conserve them. Rather, he aimed to bolster the capacity of local individuals to identify and address their conservation problems. 

To achieve this, he identified local universities within the region with the interest and capacity to train future professionals. At this particular time, no universities in Latin America or the Caribbean offered graduate degrees in wildlife conservation. Consequently, Latin Americans interested in this field had to come to the US for graduate training.

Raffaele saw numerous drawbacks to this circumstance. To remediate this deficiency, Raffaele helped create the first programs of this kind in Central America (Costa Rica), northern South America (Venezuela), southern South America (Argentina), and Brazil. Two graduate programs were also created in environmental education (Venezuela and Mexico), also the first of their kind in the region. Such programs created the first locally trained experts in wildlife conservation in many countries of the hemisphere.

In 1995 Raffaele was elevated to the position as chief of the US Fish and Wildlife Service’s Division of International Conservation broadening his responsibilities with regard to species, regions, and treaties requiring implementation. Among his responsibilities was implementation of six international treaties. Four of these related to migratory birds (treaties with Mexico, Canada, Russia, and Japan), one concerned wildlife and protected areas in the Western Hemisphere, and the last addressed critical global wetlands (Convention on Wetlands of International Importance). 

Also in his charge were five pieces of legislation directed at conserving African elephants, Asian elephants, rhinos & tigers, great apes, and sea turtles. Each of these was funded with nearly $2 million annually, thus their contribution towards the survival of these species was significant. Perhaps most importantly, Raffaele shifted international efforts of the Service to focus on the attitudes and values of local people and communities rather than on the status of wildlife and habitats. During his 18-year tenure as chief of the division, Raffaele grew the international budget over 6-fold to approximately $24 million annually.

His book Birds, Beasts & Bureaucrats relates some of his experiences during his time in Puerto Rico. Revoyage of the Mayflower: Societal Values – Conservation’s Driving Force presents his perspectives on how nature conservation can be achieved more effectively in the future.