Belén Páez

Belén Páez is an Ecuadorian ecologist and president and executive director of Fundación Pachamama, where she also coordinates the climate finance and forests areas. A specialist in climate change, the Amazon, and indigenous peoples’ rights, she is also general secretary of the Amazon Sacred Headwaters Initiative, which aims to protect 35 million hectares in collaboration with Amazonian indigenous federations. For 25 years, Páez has led the implementation of programs based on forest economies, ecotourism, renewable energies, conservation of fragile ecosystems, and legal actions in defense of collective rights and the rights of nature, climate justice. She is a board member of Protection International and the National Environmental Fund of Ecuador, and an active member of the Science Panel for the Amazon. In 2021, she was named to the list of the 100 Latinos Most Committed to Climate Action.