Over the last 20 years, Vasco M. van Roosmalen has worked with over 45 indigenous and traditional communities in helping them create the technical and financial management tools for the protection of their traditional lands. Vasco also supported the development of the first indigenous-led carbon projects in the world to successfully bring carbon credits to market and in this process became one of the first people in Brazil to register certified REDD+ carbon credits on the international market.

Vasco has a master’s degree in environmental public policy sciences from the University of Nijmegen and is the director and co-founder of the Brazilian NGO ECAM. ECAM counts on a team of 20 professionals who work with indigenous communities and numerous partners on improving the management of 40 million hectares of protected lands and surrounding regions in the Brazilian Amazon.

In 2010, the Tech Museum recognized the work done by the ECAM team with the Surui Indigenous community in integrating new technologies for protecting the environment. In his current capacity, Vasco is also a co-founder of the UTU Social Impact Investment Fund. Previously Vasco worked with the Amazon Conservation Team (ACT) and IUCN-NL.