2022 Conference:
Resistance and Resilience:
Building a Sustainable Future in Latin America and the Caribbean
Saturday, April 23rd 2022, 8:30-5:30 PM (Eastern Time)

2022 Agenda

Saturday, April 23, 2022 - 8:30am to 5:30pm

2022 Conference

8:40am to 9:10am
Mariana Camacho

2022 Conference Co-chair
2021 Logistics Lead

Alexandra Zorn

2022 Conference Co-chair
2021 Communications Lead

Claudia Valeggia

Chair, Council on Latin American and Iberian Studies

9:10am to 10:00am

The Latin America and the Caribbean region faces significant challenges, ranging from climate change to political crises and economic crises, while still recovering from the COVID-19 Pandemic. However, there are also significant opportunities to move towards stronger and sustainable growth in the post-pandemic era, leveraging the region’s diversity and natural resource richness.

Keynote Speaker
Eduardo Cavallo

Principal Economist, Research Department of the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB)

10:00am to 10:30am
10:30am to 12:00pm

Achieving sustainability and biocultural conservation requires environmental justice. However, as a manifestation of social inequalities associated with the use and conservation of natural resources, Latin America and the Caribbean are facing socioecological conflicts. Extractivism has given rise to different experiences of resistance and defense of territories of indigenous and local communities. The objective of panel is to provide an overview of the problematic in the region and what are the movements and mechanisms of resistance to extractivist projects.

Panelists
Joan Martinez Alier

ICTA-Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona

Ivet Reyes Maturano

Articulación Yucatán

Anna Cederstav

Earthjustice and Inter-American Association for Environmental Defense (AIDA)

Anu El

Accompong Maroons, Cockpit Country, Jamaica

12:00pm to 1:30pm

There is increasing attention on transforming the take-make-waste model to a more sustainable system. This shift has major environmental and social, as well as economic implications. This panel explores the role of government in this shift and how businesses can reshape consumption.

Panelists
Brian Bauer

Algramo

Selena Avendaño

Monteverde Institute

Bart van Hoof

School of Management, Universidad de los Andes, Colombia

1:30pm to 2:30pm
2:30pm to 4:00pm

This panel will explore case studies of adaptive water management in Latin America and the Caribbean.

Panelists
Alejandro Villacorta

Executive Director of Fundacion Coatepeque

Leisa Perch

SAEDI Consulting

Andrés Bustamante

EcoSwell

Alejandro Pizarro

EcoSwell

4:00pm to 5:00pm

The Amazon Rainforest is touted as a haven for biodiversity and endemism and a critical regulator of global climate. Preserving the legacy and ecosystem services of this forest and other critical landscapes across Latin America and the Caribbean remain central to creating a sustainable future for the region. This keynote address by indigenous Waorani activist and leader Oswando Nenquimo (Opi) roots our understanding of this year’s theme “Resistance and Resilience” in the power of indigenous peoples–the original and continuous forest stewards. He will explore indigenous rights, self-determination, and the role of traditional wisdom in his people’s millennia-long defense of and care for the forest. In sharing his work with Alianza Ceibo (Ceibo Alliance) and Waorani Resistance, Opi illustrates what is a first principle for indigenous communities: the forest and its future are inseparable from indigenous life and sovereignty.

Keynote Speaker
Oswando Nenquimo (Opi)

Co-founder, Alianza Ceibo

5:00pm to 5:30pm
Claudia Ochoa

2022 Conference Co-chair
2021 Panelist Lead