{"id":253882,"date":"2025-02-06T09:55:36","date_gmt":"2025-02-06T08:55:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.iucn.nl\/?p=253882"},"modified":"2025-02-06T14:56:11","modified_gmt":"2025-02-06T13:56:11","slug":"iucn-nl-director-liliana-jauregui-we-must-continue-to-connect","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.iucn.nl\/en\/story\/iucn-nl-director-liliana-jauregui-we-must-continue-to-connect\/","title":{"rendered":"IUCN NL director Liliana Jauregui: ‘We must continue to connect\u2019\u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Since 1 January 2025, Liliana Jauregui has been the director of IUCN NL. She took over from Coenraad Krijger, with whom she worked together intensively in recent years. Initially each with their own perspective: where Liliana focused on natural resources and human rights during her studies, Coenraad was trained as an ecologist.  \u2018Liliana taught me to look differently at the context of conservation,\u2019 he says. Building bridges is important for both of them. \u2018As the Dutch National Committee of the IUCN, we have a valuable mandate, which we cannot take for granted. I want to continue nurturing and strengthening this; we must continue to connect,\u2019 Liliana shares. <\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

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Header photo: Liliana Jauregui and Coenraad Krijger in Suriname \u00a9 IUCN NL<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

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The dilemma of sustainable development <\/h2>\n<\/div>\n\n
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Liliana grew up in Chile’s Atacama desert during Augusto Pinochet’s dictatorship. \u2018I come from a region with a lot of mining and little water, so my first thesis was about water shortages, the price of water and the rights of the population. We were in the aftermath of Pinochet and there was no civil society yet. I wanted to work on a dilemma that is still very prominent: how can a country develop in a sustainable way?\u2019 says IUCN NL’s new director. She left for further studies abroad. \u2018The Netherlands is now one of my two home countries.\u2019 <\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n

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Liliana has been working at the Dutch National Committee of the IUCN (IUCN NL) in Amsterdam since 2005. Unfortunately, in the past 20 years, issues such as mining, water, nature and human rights have not become any less harrowing. \u2018I was in the Altiplano in northern Chile last year, visiting the Aka Pacha Foundation<\/a>. In my childhood I was in this region often too; the landscape looks so different now, it is very painful. There is less water, less biodiversity.\u2019 <\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n

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In Liliana’s early days at IUCN NL, the organisation’s focus was on ecosystems through small grants programmes targeting tropical forests, wetlands and drylands. \u2018I learnt a lot, and at the same time I recognised many situations because of my own background in Chile. Fundamentally, challenges are often similar. The way we produce food in the Global North, for example, is not that much different from food production south of the equator. We need a lot of land and materials, and we use water and resources unwisely. These issues are universal. At the same time, the social problems that impact nature are diverse; every context is different.\u2019 <\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n

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\u2018If you do not have to hold on to make an impact, you have done well.\u2019 <\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n

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