Beatriz Maria Herrera

Amazon rainforest protector leading community-based conservation efforts in Colombia

Beatriz Herrera's Environmental Legacy

Beatriz Maria Herrera is a Colombian environmental leader whose grassroots activism has safeguarded over 200,000 hectares of Amazon rainforest in Putumayo department. As founder of the Guardianes del Bosque initiative, she mobilized Indigenous communities to combat illegal logging and coca cultivation through eco-tourism development and sustainable agroforestry programs.

Herrera's 2020 'Forest Guardians' project established the first Indigenous-led carbon credit program in Colombia, generating $2.3M in revenue for local communities while preserving biodiversity hotspots. Her innovative approach combines traditional knowledge with satellite monitoring technology to track deforestation in real-time, a system now adopted by 15 other Amazonian regions.

In 2022, she pioneered the River of Life initiative, creating floating schools powered by solar energy to educate children in remote communities about environmental stewardship. Her work has been featured in National Geographic and earned her the Goldman Environmental Prize in 2023 - the first Colombian woman to receive this honor in two decades.

Beatriz's advocacy extends to policy change, co-authoring Colombia's 2024 Indigenous Territories Conservation Law which recognizes community-led conservation as legally binding. Her memoir 《Voices of the Amazon》 (forthcoming 2025) documents her journey and the struggles of Indigenous environmental defenders.