Cindy Vergel currently serves as Manager of the Portfolio and Strategic Development Unit of the Peruvian Society of Environmental Law since November 20, 2023.
Cindy has a degree in Biology from Universidad Peruana Cayetano Heredia and a Masters in Natural Protected Areas with a joint degree from Universidad Autónoma de Madrid, Universidad Complutense de Madrid and Universidad de Alcalá. She also has knowledge and experience in governance and public innovation, adaptive leadership, natural resource and protected area management, project management, monitoring, evaluation and learning processes, open standards for conservation, economic tools for conservation, conservation and climate finance, innovation and design thinking, media training, social and environmental safeguards, among others. She is a transdisciplinary professional with more than 14 years of experience, a continuous career in biodiversity conservation, recognized expertise in conservation finance, respected experience in multilateral environmental agreements and cooperation for conservation action with a focus on sustainable and climate-smart management. During her professional life, she has worked in public and private sector organizations in the environmental sector, in close coordination with institutions related to nature finance from philanthropy, bilateral and multilateral agencies.
Cindy is also a volunteer in conservation networks such as the Women in Nature Network and the Latin American and Caribbean Women in Conservation Network. She is also a member of the World Commission on Protected Areas of Peru of the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) and the IUCN Effective Management Group.
Her leadership, facilitation and negotiation skills make her a results-oriented professional. In this sense, one of the outstanding achievements of Cindy’s career has been to provide key support to the Ministry of Environment and the National Protected Areas Service in the design, development, management of opportunities and knowledge, positioning and leadership of the Natural Heritage of Peru Initiative, a funding initiative for the permanence of the Peruvian Protected Areas System, on which she has also participated in the publication of books and working papers.
In summary, Cindy defines herself as a biologist by training, a translator of complexity and technicality into simpler (not simplistic) language/actions/indicators for impactful conservation, and also a conservationist at heart. Therefore, she is highly committed and by vocation to biodiversity conservation and environmental protection, which is her motivation for working at SPDA.
Email: cvergel@spda.org.pe