Adriana was born and raised in Costa Rica, her mother always enjoyed visiting national parks and being outdoors during the weekends, so that contact with nature made her develop a strong interest and passion for all things green, especially trees. After obtaining a degree in Business Administration in San José, she moved to Santa Teresa, a small surf town in the Pacific of Costa Rica. There she worked in the ecotourism industry for many years and had the opportunity to work as a Sustainability Coordinator in a local hotel which helped her awaken and develop her interest in environmental issues.

Shortly after, in 2012 she fell in love with permaculture and took her first permaculture design course, that experience made her open her eyes to the world of sustainable living and changed her career path completely.  Since trees were her main passion, she became interested mainly in learning about food forests and soon started her studies in analog forestry in the CCBA (Analog Forestry Training Center in Costa Rica) with the IAFN. She was also given a scholarship by the CNEAO (National Center Specialized in Organic Agriculture) where she took  different courses on agroecology and natural medicine for a couple of years. 

In 2014 she founded Escuela de la Jungla – Permacultura, a non-profit project that focuses on empowering and educating rural communities. Her project was granted a special fund by the Ministry of Culture of Costa Rica and was able to organize multiple workshops on agroecology and sustainable practices for the local farming community, where women were the main beneficiaries. 

Since then, she has designed and taught regenerative practices programs for both children and adults, and has oriented her work in the last couple of years as a permaculture consultant in several farms of the southern Nicoya Peninsula through her own consulting company,  Food Jungle Design,  focusing mainly on designing edible, medicinal, and productive gardens, soil regeneration and water protection.

Seven years ago she was given the opportunity to become an analog forestry accredited trainer for the IAFN and has taught multiple AF courses in Guatemala, El Salvador, Nicaragua and Costa Rica and has successfully been leading the Central America AF promoters program. She has now gladly joined the Secretariat team as the AF Coordinator for Latin America and the Caribbean and is very excited to continue collaborating with the IAFN further with its goal of supporting the planet’s ecosystem restoration, including gender and social justice.