A COLLABORATIVE ROADMAP FOR CATALYTIC PHILANTHROPY TO BOOS THE AMAZON BIOECONOMY

December 5th, 2022 at 12:30pm ET

Philanthropy is critical to investment – derisking private venture, increasing equitable capital, and boosting the entrepreneurial ecosystem. Strategic funding can develop Amazon market infrastructure, provide conservation finance, promote accountable governance that makes investment and commerce viable, and build carbon and ecosystem markets with integrity. Learn how leading Amazon funders are catalyzing economics for ecosystem regeneration and mobilizing new philanthropy to increase the economic competitiveness of forests with community wellbeing at the center.

Carolina Suarez 
Latimpacto

Carolina is a passionate Latin American convinced of the value of partnerships to generate impact. She is a lawyer with an LLM in international business law and more than 16 years of experience in the fields of private social investment and philanthropy.  She is recognized for her commitment to generating strategic transformations through exchanging knowledge and fostering new alliances. She co-led the creation of Latimpacto after supporting the due diligence with the International Venture Philanthropy Center -IVPC-.  Prior to that, she was also co-founder of the Association of Family and Corporate Foundations -AFE Colombia-, where she was director for its first ten years.

She is a member of the Editorial Committee of the Journal Alliance, a board member of the National Advisory Council for Impact Inversions of Colombia (NAB Colombia), and the IC Foundation.

Marcia Soares - Fundo Value
Marcia Soares
Funde Vale

Marcia Soares graduated in Social Communication from Universidade Federal Fluminense and has a Master’s degree in Communication and Culture from the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro. She has been working for more than 20 years in the socio-environmental area, focused on sustainability and corporate social responsibility. She has worked in corporate communication, network strategy, engagement, institutional relations, private social investment, management of social and environmental projects and business and impact investment. She has extensive experience in sustainability initiatives in the Amazon. 

She is part of the Management Council of the Amazon Partners Platform (PPA), an initiative led by USAID; is a member of the Strategic Council of Latimpacto, a Latin American network of risk philanthropy; and the board of the Amazon Investor Coalition. He has been at vale since 2011.

Rosa Maria Lemos de Sa - Funbio
Rosa Maria Lemos de Sá
Funbio

Rosa Lemos de Sá has been Secretary General of the Brazilian Biodiversity Fund (FUNBIO) since January 2010. With more than 30 years of experience in biodiversity conservation and climate change, she has participated in national and international programs to protect biodiversity, reduce deforestation and CO2 emissions. Under her leadership, FUNBIO has increased its portfolio and became a National Implementing Agency of the Global Environment Fund (GEF) in 2015,  and the Green Climate Fund (GCF) in 2018.

 

She previously led the Moore Foundation’s Andes-Amazon Initiative and worked at WWF-Brazil for 10 years, holding the position of Director of Conservation. She graduated in Wildlife Management from the University of Wisconsin (USA); and holds a Master’s degree in Ecology from the University of Brasilia and a Doctorate

Juliana Stobel - Fundacion Avina
Juliana Strobel
Fundacion Avina

Juliana Strobel is an economist with over 20 years of experience in social and environmental issues and the private sector. She has actively lead or participated in pan-Amazonian and Brazilian social network building initiatives, as well as promoting the implementation of concrete local level sustainability activities.  Previously she worked for a German multinational. 

Through various roles during her career, she has been engaged in strategic planning, building cooperative partnerships among diverse organizations, and team and project managing. She is fluent in Portuguese, Spanish and English.

 

Carolina Munis
Oak Foundation

Carolina Munis has a background in International Relations and is the Brazil Program Officer at Oak Foundation, where she develops grant-making and capacity building strategies to fight systemic violence. She is an experienced facilitator of educational processes for activists and a former member of Escola de Ativismo (School of Activism), a collective with the mission to strengthen the capacities of urban and rural social movements across Brazil. Her work is deeply guided by popular education, regenerative governance, and phenomenology. Carolina coordinated multiple experimental initiatives of flexible funding and movement-building for activist communities, including those focused on climate change and climate justice, diversity in electoral politics, and labor dignity for sex workers. She is enthusiastic about all forms of collective organizing and has, for the past seven years, researched and implemented self-management practices in civil society organizations, activist groups, and communities. She is a former co-editor of Revista Tuíra, a magazine focused on contemporary activism, and a partner of Beautiful Trouble, a platform to strengthen creative, nonviolent activism across the globe.

Renata Piazzon -  Instituto Arapyau
Renata Piazzon
Instituto Arapyau 

Renata is Director of the Climate Change Program at Instituto Arapayu where she is responsible for reinforcing – by means of partnerships and support for projects -initiatives that seek to reconcile economic development and environmental conservation in Brazil. She believes that reviving people’s connection with nature is key to conserving biodiversity, improving people’s quality of life and driving the sustainable development of the country.