Professor Virgilio Viana is CEO of Fundação Amazonas and general superintendent of the Amazonas Sustainable Foundation (FAS, in Portuguese) which seeks to promote the welfare and sustainable involvement of local forest dwellers throughout the Brazilian Amazon. He previously led national consultations which led to the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) and was founder and president of IMAFLORA, the first Latin American forest certifier. Viana was president of the Brazilian Society of Ethnobiology and Ethnoecology (SBEE) and of the Paulista Association of Forestry Engineers (APAEF), and vice president of the Brazilian Association of Secretaries of State for the Environment (ABEMA). In 2003, he became the first secretary of state for the environment and sustainable development in the state of Amazonas and coordinated the Programa Zona Franca Verde. Viana was a professor of Forestry Sciences in the Escola Superior Luiz de Queiróz (ESALQ/USP) from 1989 to 2009. He holds a degree in forestry engineering from the Escola Superior de Agricultura Luiz de Queioz (ESALQ-USP), and a Ph.D. in evolutionary biology from Harvard University. He did postdoctoral studies in sustainable development at the University of Florida.