Senior Vice President, Indigenous Peoples and Local Communities
Languages: Portuguese, Spanish, English
Francisco Souza
Francisco Souza is Senior Vice President of Global Indigenous Peoples and Local Communities Center at Conservation International.
A member of the Pupỹkary Indigenous community from the Brazilian Amazon, he as more than 30 years of experience in areas related to forests and biodiversity conservation, climate change, sustainable finance, Indigenous Peoples and local communities rights and knowledge and natural climate solutions. Working with Indigenous representatives, he has managed programs in +45 countries supporting community-based solutions.
Previously, Francisco was managing director of the FSC Indigenous Foundation. He also led and collaborated with multi-year and multiregional initiatives with different international organizations including Hivos, WWF, Rainforest Alliance, IADB, IDRC, private foundations and governments. Francisco is currently a member of the governing board for the Integrity Council for the Voluntary Carbon Market and former member of the IPLC Advisory Panel with Emergent for the LEAF 1-billion-dollar Coalition. He earned a Ph.D. in environmental science from Indiana University and a master’s degree in tropical conservation and development from the University of Florida.