Mariana Varese is a Peruvian scientist and the Director of Amazon Landscapes at the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) and coordinator of the Citizen Science for the Amazon Network. A natural resources economist with over 20 years of conservation experience in the Amazon and Latin America and the Caribbean, Mariana holds an M.A. in Latin American Studies from the University of Florida. She has ample experience in community-based conservation, landscape and multi-scale conservation approaches and in evidence-based participatory planning and adaptive management. Her current areas of interest are open and collaborative knowledge networks, citizen science, common goods and the effective use of evidence in decision making.

“The SPA report is needed to rapidly change our collective vision about the Amazon, its peoples and its future as a center of knowledge, innovation and well-being that inspires humanity to live sustainably.”