Do you have family traditions?
IL: We cook family recipes and try different flavors. During Easter, we prepare “fanesca,” a soup that combines Catholic symbols (12 grains representing different saints) and Indigenous rituals. While preparing fanesca, my mom, siblings, nephews, nieces, and I share family stories.
What’s your favorite memory from growing up in Ecuador?
IL: In Ecuador, you can start your day in the jungle and end it at the beach after traveling just a few hours. But what excited me the most was visiting the “Mitad del Mundo”—The Middle of the World—on the equator line. I liked the monument with painted lines marking the equator and putting one foot in each hemisphere.
You’ve worked extensively with projects in Latin America involving the Galapagos, the Amazon rain forest, and beyond. What’s most rewarding about working with conservation initiatives in Latin America?
IL: It’s rewarding working in multiple countries supporting conservation projects with highly qualified teams based in each location. I learn from my Latin American colleagues, understand synergies, acknowledge differences, and discover new perspectives that I apply to my daily work and life.
What project are you most excited about?
IL: I’m working with projects that aim to take deforestation and conversion of critical habitats out of our global supply chains. We work with diverse sectors in several countries in coordination with the WWF Network and I'm excited to see how we can change people’s mindsets towards more sustainable practices.
Through a team experts in different fields, WWF is engaging key market and financial players to drive the implementation of credible and long-lasting commitments to achieve deforestation/conversion and overfishing free supply chains and to input additional capital using the influence of the financial sector. This will help companies to reduce their environmental impacts and to work towards more environmentally friendly practices. This work takes true commitment and drive. I enjoy the work that I do and still get excited when I see progress is being made, not just in the projects that I work on, but also in similar projects. My goal is to assist achieving initiatives by the formulation of solid strategies and plans to execute on long-term goals.
What’s the most important lesson you’ve learned in your 20 years at WWF?
IL: When you work with passion and believe in the mission, you achieve better and bigger results. Any result achieved is thanks to a team effort, where different levels of expertise and viewpoints are combined and needed.
