21 Apr 2020
People and forests at risk:
Latinoamérica y el Caribe
Ecologist and Enviornmental Sciences (Social Environmental analysis), JADE AC
A biologist, graduated from the Science Faculty of the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM), with a master’s degree in Ecology and Environmental Sciences and a Doctorate in Biological Sciences. Since 1987 she has focused on the diagnosis and integrated management of natural resources.
Her areas of speciality are socio-environmental analysis, integrated water resources management and sustainable development. She has been an academic coordinator, a researcher and a professor in different research institutions such as the UNAM, Colegio de México, the Latin American Faculty of Social Sciences, the Ibero-American University and the United Nations University, among others. She has taken part in different inter-disciplinary research projects focused on the translation of scientific knowledge for decision making on conservation, sustainable development and environment and Advisor on drought, adaptation to climate change, risk management and policy issues for environmentals and humanitarians non-profit international confederations.
She has been an advisor to the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), UN-HABITAT, ECLAC, UNEP. IADB, WBG, CAF and the British Council, among others. Since 2000 she has led and taken part in different research projects on public policy, vulnerability and climate change and risk management in Latin America and the Caribbean.
She has been an environmental advisor to the Mexican government, developing the National Climate Change Strategy and supporting the foundation of the UNESCO-IMTA Water Faculty about societies of knowledge. She took part in the United Nations’ multi-agency project on democratic water governance in Mexico, and was focal point on risks and climate change in UN-HABITAT.
She is the author of numerous articles and books. She served as Scientific Director for Conservation International (CI) Mexico. She is a member of the Mexican network of environmental justice and founded a civil society organization focused on the defense of human rights and environmental justice.
She worked for more than 30 years in several regions affected by organized crime, especially about the analysis of illegal extraction, megaprojects impacts, illicit trade and damage to natural resources, forced labor, forced migration, human trafficking and land dispossession.
She learned about the impacts from corruption and organized crime on the natural resources of indigenous communities in Mexico and in some Latin American countries, and documented the misuse of financial resources and abuses by environmental organizations to vulnerable groups, especially in Mexico, Bolivia, Paraguay and Central America.