Gabriela Menezes

Brazilian environmental activist leading grassroots Amazon conservation efforts

Amazon Defender

Gabriela Menezes is a 32-year-old environmental lawyer from Belém, Brazil, best known for founding Floresta Livre in 2021 - an NGO using satellite monitoring and community patrols to combat illegal logging in the Amazon. Her organization has:

• Blocked 14 major illegal logging operations
• Trained 200+ indigenous rangers
• Recovered 350km² of deforested land

Innovative Strategies

Menezes pioneered the CrowdForest platform connecting global donors directly with Amazon communities through blockchain-secured land preservation contracts. By 2023, this initiative had secured $2.3M in micro-donations to protect 12,000 hectares of rainforest.

Global Recognition

In 2024, she became the youngest recipient of the Goldman Environmental Prize for her work. Menezes also collaborates with NASA's Earth Observatory to develop AI models predicting deforestation hotspots, which are now used by 15+ South American governments.