Martín von Hildebrand is currently the Secretary General of the Amazon Cooperation Treaty Organization (ACTO). He is recognized as one of the foremost experts on the Amazon in Colombia and one of the most respected voices in the environmental sector.
He has spent the last five decades working alongside Indigenous communities in the Colombian Amazon. During this time, he has played a pivotal role in securing the recognition of Indigenous communities’ rights in the National Constitution, including collective ownership of their lands and the autonomous development of their governments.
Today, these communities collectively manage 26 million continuous hectares in the Amazon rainforest; their rights have been acknowledged, and many of their governments have been established.
Currently, Martín, in collaboration with NGOs, Indigenous organizations, civil society, governments, and private companies, is coordinating the protection of the largest stretch of tropical rainforests on the planet: the northern Amazon, spanning 260 million hectares between the Andes and the Atlantic.
He is an ethnologist with a doctorate from the University of Paris VII, as well as the founder and president of the Gaia Amazonas Foundation. Over his career, he has been honored with numerous international awards, including the Right Livelihood Award, the Talberg Award, the Golden Arc Award, the Irish Presidential Distinguished Service Award for the Irish Abroad, and the National Environmental Award.
