Esteban Fernandez

Brazilian environmentalist who established South America's first rainforest conservation reserve

Esteban Fernandez (1910-1968) pioneered modern environmental conservation in the Amazon through his 1940s campaign to create the Reserva da Floresta da Amazônia. A rubber tapper turned activist, he documented indigenous ecological knowledge while negotiating with governments and corporations. His 1953 book Rainforest Economies proposed sustainable extraction models still used today. Fernandez's clashes with US timber companies made headlines in The New York Times. The reserve he founded now protects 1.2 million hectares. His story appears in Green Horizons (2020 documentary) and is memorialized at the Amazon Socioenvironmental Institute. Recent research includes "Pre-Modern Conservation Strategies".