Mauricio Velasquez
Coordinator of Environmental & Social Management Program for Financial Instituions (PGASIF), Corporacion Andina de Fomento, CAF

Representing UNEP FI member: Corporación Andina de Fomento (CAF)(Venezuela)

Connect with Mauricio Velasquez on LinkedIn

MOTIVATION STATEMENT

I believe that the position of Latin America at the Steering Committee (Banking) is a great platform that will help us to promote the green finance regional agenda. It is important to take advantage of the experiences of the best players in the region and use this knowledge in way it transcends in time on the Financing System of the region.  It will be a remarkable opportunity to take all the actors together and promoting national and regional agreements in Sustainable Financing. Creating conditions that help to impulse the UNEPFI agenda, for it to be better known, and adapted by a greater number of Latin American Financial Institutions. All the above to create resilient and low carbon economies to improve the livelihood of the Latin American citizens.

BACKGROUND

I was born in 1970, in Ecuador. I am a biologist from the University of Guayaquil (1994). Six years later, I´ve got a Master of Science (M.Sc.) in Environmental and Forest Biology at SUNY (State University of New York). In 2008, was a fellow student at Wolverhampton University, studying environmental governance & democracy.

My first job was as Associate Researcher at the Coastal Resources Management Program, founding the national working group of wetlands. In 1994, I went to Galapagos Islands as a fisheries monitor of the National Institute of Fisheries of Ecuador (INP). After several years in private consulting, I decided to start M.Sc. studies at SUNY-ESF.

When I returned to my country, I worked at the Galapagos National Park as a Coordinator of Investigation and Development Projects. I also worked as the Coordinator of the Volunteering Program in the Park and as the Manager of several projects: BID, PNUD-GEF, JICA, among others.

I have participated as member of the main group that elaborated the Management Plan for the Galapagos National Park and as a member of the consultancy group AECI/Araucaria. I have been Subsecretary of the Natural Capital Department at the Environment Ministry; Director of the Environmental Area at the Municipality of Guayaquil, Ex-President of the Biologists School at Guayaquil, Ecology professor at the University Espíritu Santo, Professor of Wildlife Management- University of Guayaquil: Environmental Impact Master. Professor of Protected Areas Management- University of Guayaquil: Bio-aquatic Resources Management-Natural Science Faculty; Professor of Environmental Impact Course at the Catholic University of Santiago de Guayaquil.

Since 2008 I have been the chief executive of the Environmental Department for the Northern Region of Latin America and Coordinator of the Strategic Program of Environmental and Social Management for financial institutions. From 2015 to  the present I am co-chair of the Latin American Task Force UNEPFI, and promoter of the Protocol of Sustainable Finances of the Banking of Ecuador