Virgilio Viana is a forest engineer, with a PhD in Biology from Harvard University, a postdoctoral in Sustainable Development from the University of Florida, and professor of forest sciences at the Luiz de Queiroz School of Agriculture, USP, from 1989 to 2003. He was the Secretary of State for Environment and Sustainable Development of the State of Amazonas, Brazil, from 2003 to 2008, and former President of the São Paulo Association of Forest Engineers and the Brazilian Society of Ethnobiology and Ethnoecology. He is currently the General Superintendent of the Sustainable Amazon Foundation (FAS); collaborating professor at the post-graduation course at the National Institute for Research in the Amazon (INPA); coordinator of the UN initiative: Network of Solutions for Sustainable Development - Amazon (SDSN); member of the Ethics and Action Committee for Sustainable Development, of the Vatican's Pontifical Academy of Sciences; Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Alliance for the Bioeconomy of the Amazon (ABIO).