Belén Paez

Belén Paez has been the President and Director of Fundación Pachamama, a nonprofit organization founded in Ecuador 1996 to protect the rainforest and advance the rights and livelihoods of indigenous peoples of the Amazon. Belén directs the implementation of women’s maternal health programs, clean energy, community ecotourism, and legal programs to defend collective rights and the rights of Nature. Belén is serving as the secretariat responsible for strategy implementation for the Amazon Sacred Headwaters Initiative aimed at protecting this vast biodiverse region on the Ecuador-Peru border in the headwaters of the Amazon River.  Over the last 22 years, Belén‘s leadership has contributed to victories for rainforest protection and indigenous land rights in the South Central of Ecuador. Belén has expertise in environmental policy, program implementation, collective rights, and nature’s rights. She has successfully linked indigenous institutional strengthening strategies and community-based livelihood alternatives to healthy ecosystems and biodiversity conservation. She is passionate about her country’s transition to a post carbon economy.