Ana Paula Tavares

Brazilian environmental activist combatting Amazon deforestation through tech-driven advocacy

Ana Paula Tavares is a groundbreaking environmental leader whose work has halted over 500,000 hectares of Amazon deforestation through innovative monitoring systems. As founder of Rainforest Watch, she developed the 'Guardião da Floresta' app that empowers indigenous communities to report illegal logging in real-time. This technology, launched in 2020, has been adopted by 30+ indigenous groups and led to 1,200+ successful prosecutions.

Her 2023 initiative 'Amazon in Motion' uses satellite AI to predict deforestation hotspots with 92% accuracy, enabling preemptive government action. Tavares' TEDx talk "Protecting the Amazon with Technology" has been viewed 1.5 million times. She co-founded the Amazon Youth Network in 2021, training 2,000 young activists across 7 countries in environmental advocacy.

Her collaboration with NASA's Earth Science Division produced the first real-time biodiversity mapping system for the Amazon, recognized at the 2024 COP29 summit. Tavares' recent book 《Digital Deforestation》 explores tech's role in conservation. In 2025, she launched the 'Amazon Carbon Credits' platform, creating economic incentives for forest preservation that already generated $12 million for local communities.