Dr Grethel Aguilar, born in Costa Rica, was appointed Director General of the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) in October 2023 after having assumed office as Acting Director General since July 2023. Dr Aguilar brings with her thirty years of experience in conservation and sustainable development, having worked extensively on developing and applying environmental law and policy in collaboration with governments and civil society. In particular, she is deeply passionate about the rights of Indigenous peoples and local communities and has pushed for the inclusion of their knowledge and experience in mainstream conservation policy.
Through her work in field projects, Dr Aguilar has helped communities access clean water, advocated for environmental justice, assisted Indigenous peoples in obtaining rights to their natural resources, and championed gender equality in environmental governance.
Most recently, she held the position of Deputy Director General – Regions and Outposted Offices, starting in 2021. Prior to this, she was IUCN’s Acting Director General (2019-20), and Regional Director for Mexico, Central America and the Caribbean, a role she took on in 2005.She served as the 2018 Dorothy S. McCluskey Visiting Fellow in Conservation at the Yale School of Forestry & Environmental Studies, and in 2001 received the title of Doctor of Law Outstanding cum laude from the University of Alicante, Spain for her thesis ‘Legal Instruments for Access to Genetic Resources and Associated Traditional Knowledge in Indigenous Territories’.