Cristina Larrea
Director, Agriculture, Food and Sustainability Initiatives
Cristina Larrea is the Director of Agriculture, Food, and Sustainability Initiatives for the Economic Law and Policy Program. She has over 20 years of experience working in the fields of economic inclusion and sustainability with populations in situations of vulnerability in the Global South, including small-scale producers, women, Indigenous Peoples, and agricultural small and medium-sized enterprises.
At IISD, she leads, guides and oversees a team that works with decision makers across governments, value chain actors, standards setting bodies and producers' groups to design, reform, adopt and implement policies, laws, rules, strategies, programs and other measures to advance sustainable, equitable, and nature- positive agriculture and food systems, achieving important results and milestones that support change in the benefit of rural livelihoods, climate and nature.
Her career path includes seven years of grassroots work with rainforest indigenous community-based organizations in a natural protected area in Chiapas, Mexico. There, she led initiatives for sustainable natural resources management and climate-positive agroforestry systems while supporting agribusiness development and market access of local economic groups. She also led initiatives to enhance the participatory and inclusive governance of Indigenous Peoples' rural organizations, including for strengthening their capacity to protect and advocate for their rights, while advancing women’s empowerment and gender equality.
In previous roles, Cristina contributed to creating an internationally recognized framework to measure the social, economic, and environmental impacts of financial investments in agricultural enterprises (IRIS+) and has authored and co-authored many publications on economic inclusion and sustainability. She has worked in more than 15 countries across Latin America, Eastern and Southern Africa, South-East Asia, and the Indian Subcontinent, including Brazil, Bolivia, Costa Rica, Cuba, Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, Mexico, Nicaragua, Peru, Kenya, Madagascar, Rwanda, Tanzania, Uganda, India, Cambodia, and Laos.
She speaks and writes fluently in English, French and Spanish, and when working with Indigenous People she learned how to speak in Maya Tzeltal.