Dr. Forero holds a Ph.D. degree from the City University of New York. He has dedicated his life to teaching and research in botany, and to the conservation of biodiversity in the tropics. He held several important positions at the Institute of Natural Sciences of the National University of Colombia, such as Director of the Colombian National Herbarium, Head of the Botany Section, first director of the Graduate Program in Systematics and director of the Institute. He was also Dean of the Faculty of Sciences of the University. Outside of Colombia, he was Director of Research at the Missouri Botanical Garden, International Consultant at the National Center for Genetic Resources (Brazil), and first Director of the Institute of Systematic Botany of the New York Botanical Garden. He was also president of the Flora Neotropica Organization. He has been visiting and/or adjunct professor at universities and research centers in Brazil, Colombia, Denmark and the United States.

A firm believer in scientific cooperation, he laid the foundations for the creation of the Colombian Herbaria Association, founded the Latin American Botanical Association and was a founding member of the Scientific Committee of the Latin American Botanical Network. For 20 years he was actively involved with the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) as a member in different capacities of the Species Survival Commission´s Plant Specialists groups. He was also a member of the joint IUCN-WWF Plants Advisory Group, and was the Colombian and South and Central American representative to the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Flora and Fauna (CITES). Since 2013, he has been President of the Colombian Academy of Exact, Physical and Natural Sciences. In this capacity he is currently a member of the Committee for Freedom and Responsibility in Science of the International Science Council and a member of the Executive Board of the Inter American Network of the Academies of Science (IANAS).