Yolanda Kakabadse Navarro is General Counsel and former Executive President of Fundación Futuro Latinoamericano in Ecuador, and former President of the IUCN.

She has achieved pioneering work at grassroots level towards sustainable development and is also Chair of the Scientific and Technical Advisory Panel of the Global Environment Facility (STAP/GEF).

Yolanda Kakabadse studied educational psychology at the Catholic University of Quito, Ecuador.

She was a member of the Board of the World Resources Institute, and is a member of the Board of Trustees of the Ford Foundation. She was the Joint-Coordinator of the United Nations Millennium Project Task Force on Environmental Sustainability. The Task Force focused on identifying ways in which the principles of sustainable development can be integrated into country policies and programs and reverse the loss of environmental resources.

She was founder and appointed executive director of Fundación Natura in Quito in 1979, where until 1990 she helped the foundation become one of Latin America's most important environmental NGOs.

She also coordinated the participation of civil society organizations in the United Nations Conference for Environment and Development (Earth Summit) held in Rio de Janeiro in 1992. She was appointed Minister of Environment for the Republic of Ecuador from 1998 to 2000.

She has received the Insignia of the National Order for Merit as a Commissioned Officer of the Republic of Ecuador in 1990, the Global 500 Award of UNEP in 1991, and the Golden Ark Order, bestowed by Prince Bernard of the Netherlands in 1991.

[last updated 31-Jul-08]