IUCN NL director Liliana Jauregui: ‘We must continue to connect’ 

Since 1 January 2025, Liliana Jauregui has been the director of IUCN NL. She took over from Coenraad Krijger, with whom she worked together intensively in recent years. Initially each with their own perspective: where Liliana focused on natural resources and human rights during her studies, Coenraad was trained as an ecologist.  ‘Liliana taught me to look differently at the context of conservation,’ he says. Building bridges is important for both of them. ‘As the Dutch National Committee of the IUCN, we have a valuable mandate, which we cannot take for granted. I want to continue nurturing and strengthening this; we must continue to connect,’ Liliana shares. 

Header photo: Liliana Jauregui and Coenraad Krijger in Suriname © IUCN NL

The dilemma of sustainable development 

Liliana grew up in Chile’s Atacama desert during Augusto Pinochet’s dictatorship. ‘I come from a region with a lot of mining and little water, so my first thesis was about water shortages, the price of water and the rights of the population. We were in the aftermath of Pinochet and there was no civil society yet. I wanted to work on a dilemma that is still very prominent: how can a country develop in a sustainable way?’ says IUCN NL’s new director. She left for further studies abroad. ‘The Netherlands is now one of my two home countries.’ 

Liliana has been working at the Dutch National Committee of the IUCN (IUCN NL) in Amsterdam since 2005. Unfortunately, in the past 20 years, issues such as mining, water, nature and human rights have not become any less harrowing. ‘I was in the Altiplano in northern Chile last year, visiting the Aka Pacha Foundation. In my childhood I was in this region often too; the landscape looks so different now, it is very painful. There is less water, less biodiversity.’ 

In Liliana’s early days at IUCN NL, the organisation’s focus was on ecosystems through small grants programmes targeting tropical forests, wetlands and drylands. ‘I learnt a lot, and at the same time I recognised many situations because of my own background in Chile. Fundamentally, challenges are often similar. The way we produce food in the Global North, for example, is not that much different from food production south of the equator. We need a lot of land and materials, and we use water and resources unwisely. These issues are universal. At the same time, the social problems that impact nature are diverse; every context is different.’ 

‘If you do not have to hold on to make an impact, you have done well.’ 

• Liliana Jauregui, director IUCN NL 

Human rights and nature

Liliana is a member of two of the seven IUCN Expert Commissions: the World Commission on Protected Areas (WCPA) and Commission Environmental, Economic and Social Policy (CEESP). In CEESP, she had a key role in the development of a special edition of Policy Matters, consisting of three comprehensive publications aimed at threatened conservationists. ‘I gathered information on what IUCN members are doing in terms of this. This became a rich compilation of knowledge, from science to art within a resilient community with a common purpose,’ she says. 

• Read: The stories and voices of environmental defenders across the globe, special issue of Policy Matters 

‘IUCN is a large, equal network of experts. Within the IUCN family, a national committee is like a jeep driving into an “area” first, after which others follow. We have an agenda-setting role. For instance, the focus on environmental defenders came from the IUCN resolution Support for environmental defenders adopted at the World Conservation Congress in Amman in 2000. This resolution highlighted the persecution and harassment of environmental defenders and called on the IUCN network to act publicly and forcefully. It still has a lot of impact. The same applies to Onder het Maaiveld, developed and implemented with IUCN members in the Netherlands. This project is also a great example of how we started something, in this case an educational project on the importance of a healthy, biodiverse soil, that flies off at a certain point. If you do not have to hold on to make an impact, you have done well.’  

Applying knowledge to the Netherlands 

When Coenraad took office as director in 2016, IUCN NL launched its first project focusing on conservationists: Protection of environmental defenders. ‘This was a new, intense topic for me,’ he shares. In the past 20 years, Liliana has been working together with people advocating for nature in countries where their rights are not guaranteed, such as Colombia and Peru. ‘In Madre de Dios in Peru, for example, we aim to strengthen the rights of environmental defenders through the project PIDDA, applying a gender and intercultural approach.  

Her experience in countries with less space for civil society is becoming increasingly relevant in the Netherlands. The latest Civicus Monitor’s annual report showed that conditions for civil society had deteriorated from “open” to “narrowed” in the Netherlands in 2024. ‘I want to use my knowledge and experience from other countries in the Netherlands,’ Liliana shares. ‘Our partner organisations in the Global South have often been dealing with these kinds of challenges for a long period of time, we can learn from them. In addition, it is especially important now to show our strength as an organisation.’ 

Building bridges between IUCN members, partner organisations, government agencies and companies is important for both directors. Coenraad: ‘When I started in 2016, I made a round among IUCN members in the Netherlands. Both NGOs and government agencies indicated that we add something unique and that IUCN’s role cannot be fulfilled by any other party. Connecting our members and other parties was a priority to me. In recent years, the collective action of the nature movement has been strengthened. This is obviously not only because of me, or IUCN, but also because of initiatives like the Groene11 that we are part of.’ 

Liliana continues this policy: ‘I want to listen carefully to what our members want, especially in these uncertain times. As the Dutch National Committee of the IUCN, we have a valuable mandate, which we cannot take for granted. I want to continue nurturing and strengthening this; we must continue to connect.’

‘My dream for the Netherlands is to emphasise the relationship between social and environmental issues. We cannot separate one from the other. We have to make space for nature.’ 

• Coenraad Krijger, former director of IUCN NL

Separation between people and nature

While Liliana studied economics and development, Coenraad is an ecologist by origin. This created an interesting exchange of knowledge and perspective. ‘Coenraad always considers the direct impact of our work on nature. It is important to keep asking this question,’ says Liliana. 

‘Liliana taught me to look at the context of conservation differently, for a large part through joint visits to partner organisations in countries such as Suriname and Colombia,’ Coenraad shares. Where these trips allowed him to share his knowledge about ecosystems and species, Liliana offered him new insights into social systems in relation to nature conservation. 

‘In the Netherlands, there is an extreme separation between people and nature, even more so than in other European countries,’ the ecologist continues. ‘We go “into” nature and often see nature as something that hinders us. We do not see ourselves as part of nature, like in many other places in the world. I find it powerful that IUCN reasons from what nature needs, and then includes the social elements. My dream for the Netherlands is to emphasise the relationship between social and environmental issues. We cannot separate one from the other. We have to make space for nature.’ 

Liliana stresses that ‘it is essential to realise that people and nature can – and must – reinforce each other, that we are not opposed to each other. Nature is our foundation.’ 

As of 1 March 2025, Coenraad will become CEO of Wetlands International, a member of IUCN in the Netherlands and a partner of REWET, a wetland restoration project at European level, and NL2120, a programme dedicated to improving our green earning potential through nature-based solutions.