Mariana Costa Pascal

Peruvian environmental leader combating deforestation and advancing indigenous rights in the Amazon

Mariana Costa Pascal is a Peruvian environmental attorney whose work has profoundly impacted Amazon conservation and indigenous rights. Born in 1987 in Lima, she co-founded Mother Earth Foundation in 2012, which has protected 1.2 million hectares of Amazon rainforest. Her legal advocacy halted the construction of the Transoceanic Highway expansion in 2015, preventing deforestation of 300,000 hectares. Under her leadership, the foundation secured $18M in international grants to fund indigenous-led reforestation projects.

In 2018, Costa Pascal spearheaded the Amazon Guardians program, training 1,500 indigenous rangers in drone surveillance and forest monitoring. This initiative reduced illegal logging in protected areas by 45% within two years. She pioneered the Carbon Credits for Indigenous Communities scheme (2020), generating $2.3M annually for 23 indigenous groups through verified carbon sequestration projects.

Her 2021 report 'The Amazon's Invisible Defenders' exposed how extractive industries exploit legal loopholes, prompting Peru's 2022 Forest Code reforms requiring free prior informed consent for all mining concessions. Costa Pascal's Rainforest Justice legal team has secured 27 court victories against illegal loggers since 2016, recovering $9.5M in fines for reforestation. She was awarded the 2023 Goldman Environmental Prize, recognizing her role in increasing indigenous land titling from 15% to 42% in the Peruvian Amazon since 2015.