Federico Bellone

Biography

Federico first trained as an environmental scientist and went on to specialize in leadership development and social entrepreneurship, also obtaining higher learning degrees in oceanography, environmental technology, and more recently international relations. For the past 13 years, his career and interests have been shaped by addressing the question of how to live within Earth’s limits, and what social, economic, and ecological arrangements must come into place in order to achieve this with dignity and prosperity.
He completed a two-year learning period based out of the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, in order to broaden his understanding of the role played by global trends on the equitable, prosperous, and sustainable Latin America he is committed to. He was also involved in institutional learning around poverty alleviation and climate change through the Climate and Development Knowledge Network, a DFID-funded program present in 13 countries across Asia, Africa and Latin America.
In his former role as senior program manager at the AVINA Foundation, he developed an international program for consolidating efforts to avoid deforestation in the 9 countries of the Amazon Basin, in partnership with the region’s social entrepreneurs and other international partners. Also with the AVINA foundation, Federico has developed international partnerships for socially inclusive markets in Latin America, and for adapting to the arid conditions of Brazil’s vast and disadvantaged rural northeast. Prior to this, Federico worked with Spain’s international aid agency designing sustainable livelihoods programs in 9 Latin American countries.
Born Italian, raised South American, and trained in Europe and the United States, Federico strives to develop a global and intercultural approach to understanding our common challenge as humans on a finite planet. He has traveled to almost every country in Latin America, keeping a photographic record of it vast cultural and environmental richn