Martin Hildebrand (Gaia Amazonas) – 2009 Skoll Awards for Social Entrepreneurship
Speakers
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Martin von Hildebrand, PhD in Ethnology, Director and Founder of Gaia Amazon Foundation. He has dedicated his life since 1970 to the defense and promotion of the rights of the Indigenous Peoples and to the conservation of the rain forest in the Colombian Amazon. Thanks to his constant commitment, the Indigenous People, that in the 70´s were still being exploited in rubber camps and had no rights, are now owners of 26 million hectares of Amazon Forest, have set up in half this territory their own governmental system officially recognized by the State as Public Entities and are managing their social and environmental programs with national funding. In addition to many accolades for the breath of his accomplishment, Hildebrand received Colombia's National Environmental Prize in 1999, the Swedish Right Livelihood Award in 1999, the Skoll Foundation's Social Entrepreneur Award in 2009 and the World Economic Forum Social Entrepreneur Award in 2009.
