10:00 AM EST | 4:00 PM CET
Tuesday, September 16, 2025
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Speaker Biographies
As part of Cadasta’s Mapping Change: Local Action, Global Impact webinar, we are honored to feature leaders from our partner organizations who are advancing land and resource rights at the community level. Their work demonstrates how locally driven mapping initiatives contribute directly to global priorities for biodiversity conservation and climate resilience.
The following biographies highlight the expertise and experience of our speakers, whose efforts exemplify the power of data and technology to strengthen land governance and secure a more sustainable future.
Dr. Rohini Chaturvedi
Strategy Advisor, International Consultant
Cadasta Board Member
Rohini Chaturvedi is an experienced international development consultant and professional, with expertise in advancing land-based solutions to the climate crisis which center Indigenous Peoples and local communities. She currently serves on the Board of Directors of Cadasta Foundation. Previously, she served as the strategy lead for a new collaborative initiative called Forests, People, Climate (FPC) hosted by the Climate and Land Use Alliance. aimed at halting and reversing tropical deforestation while delivering just and sustainable development. More…
Paul Sein KESAN
Co-founder and Director of the Karen Environmental and Social Action Network (KESAN) and President of the Salween Peace Park
Paul Sein Twa is an Indigenous Karen from Burma/Myanmar and is a co-founder and leader of the Karen Environmental and Social Action Network (KESAN). This organization supports the livelihoods, rights, and traditions of Indigenous Karen communities. He also serves as the chair of the Salween Peace Park, which is Burma’s first area conserved by Indigenous peoples, covering over 6,000 square kilometers. With nearly three decades of experience, Paul is committed to empowering communities, promoting democratic governance of natural resources, fostering inclusive biodiversity conservation, and advocating for the peace and self-determination rights of the Karen people in Burma.
Mariel Kistemaker
Land and Forest Program Technical Assistant at the Karen Environmental and Social Action Network (KESAN)
Mariel Kistemaker is the Land and Forest Program Technical Assistant at the Karen Environmental and Social Action Network (KESAN), where her work centers on Indigenous rights, land and natural resource governance, and Indigenous Conserved Territories in Kawthoolei, Myanmar. She is dedicated to peacebuilding, the protection of Karen traditional knowledge and culture, and advancing environmental conservation and Indigenous land data sovereignty.
With a background in Social Science, Mariel has collaborated with NGOs and academic institutions on issues of forced migration in Southeast Asia, with a particular focus on Myanmar. Her experience includes working with displaced women from Special Economic Zones, contributing to the development of a Master’s course on forced displacement, co-organizing and facilitating regional capacity-building workshops for young scholars and civil society representatives, and supporting displaced academics from Myanmar in designing training programs on migration and human rights for refugees to expand access to education.
Claudia Jimena Pai
Coordinator of the Great Binational Awá Family, Unidad Indigena del Pueblo Awá (UNIPA)
Claudia Jimena Pai, an Indigenous Awá woman from the Piedra Sellada Ancestral Territory in Tumaco, Nariño (Colombia), is a nursing assistant and lawyer specializing in Indigenous and intercultural law at UAIIN. With more than two decades of experience in the organizational process of the Indigenous Unity of the Awá People (UNIPA), she has held leadership roles in administration, education, women and family, human rights defense, and in protecting Awá territory from violence and the impacts of armed conflict. She currently serves as Coordinator of the Great Binational Awá Family, a political space that brings together the four organizations representing the Ɨnkal Awá people across Colombia and Ecuador: FCAE, UNIPA, CAMAWARI, and ACIPAP.
María Camila Solís Flórez
GIS Coordinator, Unidad Indigena del Pueblo Awá (UNIPA)
Born in Ipiales, Nariño (Colombia), Maria Camila Solis Florez is a geographer from the University of Nariño. She currently serves as the Coordinator of the Geographic Information System (GIS) of the Indigenous Organization of the Awá People (UNIPA), where she provides professional support to the Organization and Territory Council in matters related to cosmo-environment and land. From 2024 to 2025, she led the Espejos del Territorio project in partnership with the Cadasta Foundation, strengthening the documentation and defense of Awá territory through innovative mapping and data practices.