Our team

Meet our directors

Javier Márquez

Executive director

Conservationist, I fell in love with nature when I started working with Defensores. I believe that we can move closer and closer to sustainable development in partnership with the government, communities, and the private sector. I will do my best to achieve a greener Guatemala.

Heydi Garcia

Natural Areas and Biodiversity Director

Biologist committed to the conservation of nature and the development of our country.  I like to share the idea that in the search for balance we can achieve and advance in the arduous path of conservation of our natural resources.  Everything I do I do with love for my fellow man with the hope of a better world where inequalities are smaller every day and know that I contributed however small it may be to achieve a better world.

Carlos Estrada

Monitoring and Evaluation Director

Forestry engineer by profession, chapin by heart, passionate about nature, convinced and committed to environmental and social causes. I firmly believe that in Guatemala it is possible to achieve development in harmony with natural resources and that Defensores de la Naturaleza contributes in an important way to the natural balance for all Guatemalans.

Lorena Flores 

Director of Alliances and Cooperation

Lorena Roca

Director of Human Talent Management

Graduate in Human Resources Administration with more than 25 years of experience in the area of human resources in multinational companies with a high number of collaborators. I have managed the areas of recruitment and selection, training and development, compensation, performance evaluation, organizational climate, Quality Management and Occupational Health and Safety systems. I am a person passionate about the area of human development since I consider it a strategic ally within an organization.

Eddie García

Director of Administration and Finance

Vanessa Paiz

Director of Communications and Advocacy

Marketer with a green heart, with a postgraduate degree in Public-Private Partnerships for Sustainable Development. Convinced that development in Guatemala is possible, as long as we are able to make multi-sectoral agreements where the relationship is win-win.

Rudy Bautista

Director of Reserva de Biosfera Sierra de las Minas

Agricultural engineer, lover of renewable natural resources and nature as a whole, enthusiastic and dynamic, responsible, with high spirit and commitment to improvement, proactive, able to undertake and take on new challenges both personal and institutional and my best efforts in the search for the joint development of rural communities’ hand in hand with natural resources.

Luis Barrientos

Director of Refugio de Vida Silvestre Bocas del Polochic

Professional passionate about rural development, environmental care and the good use of Guatemala's natural resources. In everything I do I always seek the best of the purposes that go hand in hand with what I believe and profess. I am an environmentalist by profession, with postgraduate studies in rural development and climate change.

Vinicio Mejía

Director of Parque Nacional Sierra del Lacandón

Forestry engineer, environmentalist and green-hearted, aware of the difficult task of protecting and conserving the natural and cultural resources of our country. I am committed to the work and willing to do whatever is humanly possible to contribute to conservation. I believe that if we work and unite with a green heart, we can reverse deforestation.

Carmenmaría Mejía 

Director of Parque Nacional Naciones Unidas

Professional passionate about the environment, bird lover. Committed to the conservation of nature and to instill in others the love and protection of our natural resources.  Contributing every day to achieve a Guatemala where more people can have access to green spaces for recreation and education.