Yurshell Rodríguez
Colombia | Raizal
Coordinator of the Residency Program
Yurshell Rodríguez is an Environmental Engineer from the National University of Colombia and a master’s student. She is a climate activist, researcher, and plaintiff in the first lawsuit for climate change and future generations in Latin America.
He belongs to the Afro-Caribbean Raizal ethnic group native to the San Andrés Archipelago, Providencia, and Santa Catalina Islands, Colombia. Home to the third most largest coral reef.
From a very young age, he has dedicated himself to the protection and conservation of ecosystems, participating in environmental protection activities. In 2018, along with 25 other young plaintiffs and the NGO Dejusticia, they sued the Colombian government to stop deforestation in the Amazon rainforest and won the lawsuit under ruling 4360.
She currently works with If Not Us Then Who as Coordinator of the Residency Program and leader of external communications and is part of the Local NGO Sea Land and Culture Foundation Old Providence Initiative, which works on preserving the Raizal Culture and Ecosystems.
She was chosen by the Youth Advisory Group of the General Secretariat on Climate Change on UN Youth in 2021 as a Young Environmental Activist, in addition to having participated as a spokesperson for climate justice in spaces such as Cop 25 Madrid, Cop 26 Glasgow and Cop 27 Egypt and in other important spaces that advocates for climate justice in the communities most vulnerable to the climate crisis in the world.