Manuel Pulgar-Vidal Otalora

Leader, Climate and Energy Practice, WWF International

Benki Piyãko

Asháninka Community Leader, Terra Kampa do Rio Amônia

Benki Piyãko is a political authority and is held in high esteem both at home and internationally. He actively participates in important initiatives of his people, the Ashaninka, especially in the defense of their country and in the construction of educational centers to train local communities. He supports indigenous peoples in defending their land against exploitation by outsiders, he also teaches them optimized methods of soil management and illustrates how to use natural resources while preserving a unique ecosystem rich in species. Among the many projects that Benki Piyãko has led is the creation of the Yorenka Ãtame (“Knowledge of the Forest”) Center, with the aim of providing hundreds of communities in Brazil and Peru with an environmental management and conservation model based on the knowledge handed down by indigenous peoples. In his new project Beija flor (“Ko- libri”), Benki Piyãko works with non-indigenous communities. The aim is to reforest degraded areas on the border between Brazil and Peru and to create jobs in the region while at the same time training young people in sustainable farming methods.

Nemonte Nenquimo

Waorani leader, Ecuadorian Amazon’s Waorani people

Nemonte Nenquimo is a prominent Indigenous leader from the Ecuadorian Amazon, who is fighting to protect her ancestral territory, culture, and way of life. In 2019, Nenquimo led her people’s historic legal victory against the Ecuadorian government, protecting half-a-million acres of primary rainforest from oil drilling and setting a precedent for Indigenous rights across the region. She is a member of the Waorani nation, legendary hunter-harvesters of the southcentral Ecuadorian Amazon, who currently number approximately 5000 spread across 54 communities over roughly 2.5 million acres of some of the most richly biodiverse and threatened rainforest on the planet. Raised in the traditional community of Nemonpare in the Pastaza region of the Ecuadorian Amazon, Nenquimo co-founded the Indigenous-led nonprofit organization Ceibo Alliance and the international organization Amazon Frontlines to protect Indigenous lands and livelihoods from resource extraction. In 2018, Nemonte was elected the first female president of CONCONAWEP, the Waorani organization of Pastaza province.

Gavin Schmidt

NASA Senior Climate Advisor, Director, NASA Senior Climate Advisor

As the Director of GISS and Principal Investigator for the GISS ModelE Earth System Model, Gavin is interested in understanding past, present and future climate and the impacts of multiple drivers of climate change, including solar irradiance, atmospheric chemistry, aerosols, and greenhouse gases. Gavin serves currently as a senior climate advisor to ensure the achievement of NASA’s climate science objectives under the Biden Administration. Gavin has a PhD in Applied Mathematics from the University College London.

Marina Silva

Minister of the Environment and Climate Change, Government of Brazil

Marina Silva is a Brazilian politician and environmentalist who currently serves as Brazil's Minister of the Environment and Climate Change. She is the founder and former spokeswoman for the Sustainability Network Party (REDE). During her political career, Silva served as a senator of the state of Acre between 1995 and 2011 and Minister of the Environment from 2003 to 2008. One of Silva’s main achievements as Environment Minister during that period was the establishment of the Plan to Prevent and Combat Deforestation in the Amazon (PPCDAm), which reduced deforestation rates by 80% from 2005 to 2012, in addition to supporting the creation of 25 million hectares of protected natural areas in the region. Marina Silva ran for president in 2010, 2014 and 2018. She has gained worldwide recognition for defending the environment, traditional communities, social justice, and sustainable development for over 30 years. Silva has won several awards in recognition of her environmental activism and leadership. In 1996, Silva won the Goldman Environmental Prize for South & Central America. In 2007, the United Nations Environment Program named her one of the Champions of the Earth and the 2009 Sophie Prize. In December 2014, Marina Silva was elected by the British Financial Times newspaper as one of its Women of the Year. Silva is also a member of Washington, D.C.-based think tank, the Inter-American Dialogue. In 2010, she was named by Foreign Policy magazine to its list of top global thinkers, for taking Green mainstream. In 2012, she was one of eight people chosen to carry the flag for the opening ceremonies of the 2012 London Summer Olympics. Marina Silva is a specialist in Psychopedagogy and Psychoanalytic Theory and holds Doctor Honoris Causa from the Federal University of Bahia and from the Chinese Academy of Forestry.

Jaime Guevara

Mayor, Mayor, Província de Pastaza, Ecuador

Jaime Patricio Guevara Blaschke is an Agronomist and current mayor of Pastaza province in Ecuador. Within his professional career, he served as Manager of the Puyo branch of the National Development Bank until 2004. In that same year, he opted for politics and launched his candidacy for the city hall of Pastaza, winning the elections for the period 2005-2009 and later, with the support of the popular vote and with the validity of the 2008 constitution, he repeated a new administrative period at the head of the Pastaza during 2009-2014. After a five-year break in politics, Jaime Guevara achieved once again the trust of the people of Pastaza, winning the elections for 2019-2023, which has an enormous responsibility with the development of the province.

Luciana Gatti

Senior Researcher, Brazil’s National Institute for Space Research (INPE)

Luciana Gatti is a senior researcher in climate change for the Brazilian National Institute for Space Research (INPE) and a Greenhouse Gas (GHG) Laboratory coordinator at INPE’s General Coordination of Earth Science. She is a high-precision GHG specialist, coordinating projects in Amazonia and the Brazilian coast. Her scientific objective is to understand the Amazon GHG balance and the drivers that impact these balances, conducting international and national projects.

Marino Velasco

Indigenous Leader and President, Security of the Asháninka Pampa Michi Native Community, Peru

Marino Velasco is an artisan, Indigenous leader and president of Security of the Asháninka Native Community in Pampa Michi, Chanchamayo province, belonging to the department of Junín in Peru. Marino has actively participated in the bamboo promotion activities in his territory where INBAR develops together with the support of the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD).

Angela Mendes

Socio-environmental Activist, Ashoka Brasil's fellow, Coordinator of Chico Mendes Comittee, Chico Mendes Committee

After her father's death, several of his friends and colleagues approached Angela, who then started working at the Amazon Workers Center (CTA), an organization co-founded by Chico Mendes that works with community-based forest management for multiple uses, which had a great participation in the formulation of Extractive Reserves and Agroextractive Settlement Projects (PAE), guaranteeing to the communities that lived there. At the same time, Angela was part of the founding group of the Chico Mendes Committee, created to demand that the police and judicial authorities investigate, judge and convict those involved in her father's murder and to publicize nationally and internationally the ideals and legacy of Chico Mendes's struggle. From her work at CTA and the Chico Mendes Committee, which were at the same headquarters, Angela began to learn more and more about her father's history, the struggle of rubber tappers and traditional peoples and the reality and challenges of local communities. In 2009, Angela took over the leadership of the Chico Mendes Committee, working mainly with initiatives to raise environmental awareness and preserve the legacy of the rubber tappers' struggle, at the time supported by the Acre Secretariat for the Environment. Years later, Angela was elected Director of the Secretariat of Women of the National Council of Extractive Populations (CNS), in which she proposed and negotiated with the Ministry of the Environment for the resumption of the project Bagagem das Mulheres da Floresta, aimed at the reproductive health of women of traditional communities. She then began to perceive a change in the scenario over the years: the conflicts over land that seemed to be pacified still occurred, and young people participated more and more actively in the Committee's activities, exposing their opinions and the challenges they faced. In 2015, based on her contact with young people, Resex Residents' Associations, and her trajectory in the movement, Angela identified the problem of youth exodus and the growing number of invasions, subdivisions and divisions within Resex Chico Mendes, caused by the lack of investment in the extractive production chains and public policies for the territory as a whole, but also by the erasure of the memory of the history of struggle of the extractive communities. Knowing these difficulties and nuances, Angela founded the Youth Center within the Chico Mendes Committee and initiated the co-creation of Young Protagonists of Resex, in partnership with CNS, CTA and the Pro-Indio Commission, to train young extractive leaders to be conscious of their history and their potential to create change.

Flávio Dino

Governor of Maranhão State, Brazil

Flávio Dino is a lawyer and professor of Law at the Federal University of Maranhão (UFMA) since 1993. He holds a Master's Degree in Public Law from the Federal University of Pernambuco (UFPE) and has taught at the Faculty of Law of the University of Brasília (UnB), from 2002 to 2006. Flávio Dino was a federal judge for 12 years, held the positions of secretary-general of the National Council of Justice (CNJ), president of the Association of Federal Judges of Brazil (Ajufe), and advisor to the presidency of the Federal Supreme Court (STF). In 2006, he joined the Communist Party of Brazil (PCdoB) after resigning from the judiciary system and applying for a seat in the Chamber of Deputies. Elected federal deputy as the fourth most voted in Maranhão, he stood out as one of the main names of the Committee on Constitution and Justice and Citizenship (CCJC), the main committee of the Chamber of Deputies. In his four-year term, he was elected one of the most influential parliamentarians in Brazil by the Inter-union Department of Parliamentary Advice (DIAP) and one of the best parliamentarians in the country by the website Congresso em Foco. With the prominence achieved in two years as a federal deputy, he ran as a candidate for mayor of São Luís (state of Maranhão) in 2008. In 2010, he disputed his first election for governor. In both elections, he was in second place. Between 2011 and 2014, Flávio Dino chaired the Brazilian Tourism Institute, when Embratur reached the record annual mark of 6 million foreign tourists. In 2014, he disputed his second election for the Government of Maranhão and was victorious, being elected with 63.52% of the votes, defeating one of the largest political clans in the history of the state, which dominated the scene for more than 50 years. From there, it starts a series of public policies to bring development, social justice, and opportunities for all. These policies include the Bolsa Escola and Escola Digna Programs and the Mais IDH Plan, which operates in the 30 poorest municipalities in the state and aims to increase the Human Development Index (HDI) in these cities. During the political crisis that took place in Brazil after the 2014 elections, Flávio Dino became known nationally as one of the greatest voices in defense of democracy and the harmony and independence between the powers. In 2018, he was reelected governor of Maranhão, once again defeating the coronelista political group.

Selma Dealdina

Executive Secretary, CONAQ (National Coordination of Rural Black and Quilombola Communities' Articulation)

Quilombola of Angelim III, Sapê do Norte Territory, São Mateus, Espírito Santo State. Social Worker graduated from Anhanguera College. Former Women's Policy Manager for the state of Espírito Santo. Selma has been engaged over the years in various groups and social movements, including the advisory services for the State Coordination of Quilombola Communities of Espirito Santo 'Zacimba Caba'; the Women's Collective of CONAQ; La Via Campesina; March of Black Women from Espírito Santo; Espírito Santo's Folklore Commission; Self-organized Women's Collective of São Mateus - BELAS, Black Women's Collective Constância d'Angola and Black Coalition for Rights. She is a board member of Amnesty International and the Casa Socio-Environmental Fund. Member of the ELIMU Institute Professor Cleber Maciel (ES). Currently part of the National Coordination of Articulation of Rural Black Quilombola Communities (Conaq) and organizer of the book "Mulheres Quilombolas: territórios de existências negras femininas".