Makarena Roa

PROFILE

Makarena Roa’s work at Pew focuses on engaging and building bottom-up relations with local communities and authorities, Indigenous peoples, and regional nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) in Chilean Patagonia. Doing so is critical to achieving outcomes for conservation that are based on local people’s involvement in the future of their natural heritage and protected areas. Roa previously worked as a consultant for the Pew Bertarelli Ocean Legacy Project, where for almost four years she advised the Rapa Nui community on marine conservation. The NGOs’ collaborative work with the community and authorities resulted in the creation of the largest marine protected area in Latin America.

Before coming to Pew, Roa coordinated the design stage of the Global Environment Facility project called “Protection of Biodiversity and Multiple Ecosystem Services in Biological Mountain Corridors in Chile’s Mediterranean Ecosystem.”

Roa holds a bachelor’s degree in veterinary science from the Universidad de Chile, a diploma in environmental project management, and a master’s degree in natural resources from the Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile. She lives in Santiago.