Catalina Cock Duque

Catalina Cock holds a Masters Degree in Social Policy and Planning for developing countries from the London School of Economics and a BA in Sociology and Political Science from the Maryland University. Currently, she is the Executive Director of Mi Sangre Foundation, created in 2006 by the social activist and artist "Juanes" to contribute to peace building in Colombia. Catalina has more than 10 years of experience in community development and promotion of sustainable use of natural resources. She is the co founder and Chair of Amigos del Chocó Foundation and the Green Gold Initiative. She is also cofounder and Chair of the Alliance for Responsible Mining, ARM. Catalina has been involved with academia both as a lecturer and researcher.  She is a fellow of Ashoka, a global network of social entrepreneurs and was nominated in 2007 as a Young Global Leader by the World Economic Forum.

AMICHOCÓ fosters the sustainable use of natural resources and the improvement of the quality of life of the Chocó Bioregion's population, by implementing productive projects, communicating and educating about the environment and building capacity, facilitating discussions between grassroots communities and national and international communities. It builds trust and long-term relationships with local communities in order to develop innovative initiatives together, and links those initiatives with national and international communities.

AMICHOCÓ's work is oriented by three action areas:

1. Reasonable use of natural resources through rescue of the native values of the region and fostering the harmony between humankind and environment. 2. Development and consolidation of products and services for fair and green markets, in order to foster the reasonable use of natural resources and improvement of the income level of local communities. 3. Strengthening of managerial and technical capacities in partner grassroots organizations, working towards enabling their own self-management.

www.amichoco.org