Welcome Viridiana

We are pleased to introduce our new ELAW Fellow, Viridiana Maldonado.

Viridiana is an attorney and Co-Coordinator at Territorios Diversos para la Vida (TerraVida), a new organization working “to transform unjust structures that have exploited nature, communities, and people.” She previously served as Regional Director at the Mexican Center for Environmental Law (CEMDA).

Viridiana works to defend the environment, land, and native territories. She collaborates closely with Indigenous communities and environmental defenders to challenge short-sighted projects and build local capacity.

Her work includes building the capacity of Indigenous communities in Oaxaca, Morelos, Michoacán, Nayarit, Veracruz, and the Yucatán Peninsula. She is working on emblematic cases challenging silver mining in an archaeological zone in Xochicalco, Morelos; helping communities with legal processes to protect their territory from the Mayan Train and Puerta al Mar mega-developments in the Yucatán Peninsula; and protecting the Xochimilco wetlands World Heritage Site in Mexico City.

Viridiana attended last week’s Public Interest Environmental Law Conference and joined ELAW Fellows Zuzana Kubíková (Slovakia) and Adrian Chochoł (Poland) on a field trip to the spectacular Oregon Coast (photo above). While in Eugene, she will collaborate with the ELAW Team to advance her work and meet with a tutor to strengthen her English.

Many thanks to Laurie Nicholson for providing Viridiana with a host family.

For more information about the ELAW Fellows Program, please visit our website.

Maggie Keenan
Communications Director & Fellows Program Coordinator
Environmental Law Alliance Worldwide