WarīNkwī Flores

WarīNkwī Flores is a first-generation Andean Kara and Andean-Amazonian Kichwa PhD student at the University of Arizona. He develops innovative frameworks that connect Indigenous institutionality, data sovereignty, and relational science with financial mechanisms for environmental markets, with a focus on planetary regeneration. WarīNkwī, as Technical Co-Lead for the BCA-IAPB-WEF Marine Biodiversity Credits Collaboration and a member of the Pooled Fund Steering Committee with Rights and Resources Initiative, supports how climate finance flows to frontline communities. As Translational Leader for the Baseline Rights Standard of Nature & Humanity with the UN Biodiversity Credits Alliance – International Environmental Guardianship (IEG), he supports equitable environmental market innovation and strategy. As IPBES Fellow for Biocultural Intellectual Property & Data Governance (2025-2028) and Co-Chair of the Eco-Augmentation Initiative with the Geneva Science & Diplomacy Anticipator (GESDA), WarīNkwī influences global biodiversity policy, ensuring Indigenous perspectives remain central to international environmental governance frameworks. WarīNkwī’s work as a “Kultural Lawyer” with the UN Expert Mechanism on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples and the Human Pangenome Reference Consortium exemplifies his commitment to Indigenous data sovereignty and ethical research practices. He serves as Technical Lead for Indigenous Data Sovereignty & AI governance systems with the CEIBA Council, LAC, ensuring that emerging technologies and bio/data economies serve rather than extract from communities. As an Ancestral Territory Trustee accountable to his communities from 2019 to 2030, WarīNkwī offers an authentic Indigenous perspective on the intersection of Indigenous institutionality and contemporary financial mechanisms, ensuring that investment strategies ethically serve the communities that steward Earth’s most biodiverse ecosystems