Francisca Mendez

Indigenous Brazilian activist leading Amazon rainforest conservation through community-driven initiatives

Francisca Mendez is a Kayapo indigenous leader fighting to protect the Amazon rainforest through innovative community strategies. As head of the Kayapo Monitoring Project, she developed real-time surveillance systems using drones and satellite imagery to combat illegal logging. Her work has prevented over 150,000 hectares of deforestation in the Xingu River Basin since 2016.

Mendez pioneered the 'Guardians of the Forest' program training 200+ indigenous rangers in conservation technology. She established partnerships with global tech companies like Mapbox to create interactive forest monitoring platforms. Her advocacy led to Brazil's first indigenous-led carbon credit program, generating $2.3M in sustainable revenue for tribal communities.

In 2020, she co-founded Amazon Voice, a coalition of 12 indigenous nations using AI to translate ancestral ecological knowledge into climate models. Her TEDx talk 'Our Forests, Our Future' has become a cornerstone of global environmental education. Mendez's strategies have reduced illegal mining activity by 40% in protected areas according to WWF Brazil reports.