Valentina is a Project Coordinator at Yunus Environment Hub, supporting the Business Incubator and Accelerator (BIA) for Mountains and Islands program. She is passionate and has a strong interest in sustainable forest management through social projects with rural communities.

She was born in Colombia and holds a degree in Forestry Engineering. She has three years of experience in designing and planning vegetation sampling to guide the sustainable management of tropical forests, especially in the Amazon and Colombian Pacific regions. Direct engagement with the issues and challenges faced by tropical forests in her country motivated her to pursue a master’s degree in Ecosystem Services at the Technical University of Dresden (Germany).

Currently, she is in the final stages of her master’s program and aims to contribute to forest conservation through projects that ensure ecosystem services and the well-being of the communities that inhabit them.

Valentina loves spending time outdoors, particularly hiking in the mountains. She greatly enjoys natural landscapes as they bring her tranquillity and teach her that achieving a goal requires effort and perseverance. Additionally, she has a creative side and enjoys embroidering on fabric, creating watercolour paintings, and making collages using “waste” materials.