Valmir Ortega

Valmir Gabriel Ortega is a geographer with over 15 years of experience in the public sector. He has held key leadership positions, including Superintendent of the Environment in Mato Grosso do Sul, Director of Ecosystems and Acting President at IBAMA, and State Secretary of the Environment in Pará. In these roles, he led and implemented a wide range of public policies and government programs in the environmental sector. Between 2010 and early 2013, he also served as Program Director for the Cerrado-Pantanal region and Senior Policy Director at Conservation International Brazil (CI-Brasil).

In 2018, Valmir founded the Sustainable Connections Institute (CONEXSUS), an organization dedicated to promoting socio-environmental impact businesses, with a focus on community initiatives and the sustainable use of land. Over the years, he has concentrated on advancing the field of socio-environmental impact businesses, working as a consultant in structuring impact investment funds and as a social entrepreneur in creating new ventures.

Recently, Valmir has focused his efforts on leading Belterra Agroflorestas, a company specializing in forest restoration and promoting sustainable rural development, with a focus on agroforestry systems for cacao production. Belterra serves as an innovative model for transforming degraded areas into regenerative, productive landscapes, delivering socio-environmental impact at scale.