Patricia Majluf is the Vice President of Oceana in Peru, the largest international NGO fully dedicated to protecting the global oceans. For the last three decades she has almost singly led marine conservation efforts in Peru, successfully promoting the establishment of marine protected areas and developing public awareness of the large-scale ecosystemic and socio-economic impacts of the massive industrial anchoveta (Engraulis ringens) fisheries. Her most successful initiative catalyzed a nation-wide increase in direct consumption of anchoveta, the keystone species in this ecosystem, which is massively extracted and until recently only used to produce fishmeal and oil and exported as feed for aquaculture and industrial animal production systems. Since then, anchovetas have become a strategic component in the Peruvian Government’s food aid and food security initiatives. She briefly served as Vice-Minister of Fisheries in 2012 not leaving before raising national attention to the systemic corruption of the Sector in Peru. For her work in marine conservation she has obtained the Charlotte Wyman Award for Women in Conservation, the Lindbergh Award, the Whitley Gold Award, the Guggenheim Fellowship, the Marlin Perkins’ Conservation Award, the Distinguished Service Award of the Society for Conservation Biology, the BBVA Foundation Award for Biodiversity Conservation Projects in Latin America, the Pew Marine Fellowship and the Summum Award for Sustainability.
