Founder of GAIA-- San Francisco

GAIA–San Francisco was founded by Cheri Sugal, a leader in international rainforest conservation. For the past decade, Cheri has worked in more than 25 countries with indigenous people, governments and local landowners, helping to create more than 100 million acres of new protected areas world-wide. She firmly believes that the most important political and moral problem of our time is the the possible loss of half of all species on earth by the end of this century (EO Wilson) and, that the same time, that it only takes a few people with passion and commitment to turn the tide.

In 2001, she helped broker the largest conservation grant in history, a one hundred million dollar fund created by the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation, for Conservation International in Washington , DC. In 2002, she founded World Parks, a non-profit organization helping to broker conservation deals with private landowners in areas identified as the last remaining habitats for the world's most endangered species ( www.zeroextinction.org.)

She now focuses her conservation efforts in southern Mexico as Executive Director of an organization called Friends of Calakmul (www.calakmul.org), which is working with local landowners in the region to set aside half a million acres of pristine jaguar habitat for conservation. She is also a steering committee member of the Natural World Museum (www.naturalworldmuseum.org), the first museum in the world dedicated entirely to conservation, and a board member of Costa Rica Conservation Trust (www.conservecostarica.org), which is protecting land and providing environmental education for local people in the central pacific valley of Costa Rica.

Cheri's main motivation for founding GAIA was to inspire those who come through the institute to continue to create a better world for ourselves and for generations that follow.

Founder's Message: Make a Difference!