Marlon Flores is a Senior Policy Advisor at Ecologic Institute in Washington DC. His work focuses on protected areas and ecosystems finance, environmental fiscal reform and related institutional capacity building. He advises national governments, donor agencies and international NGOs. He is a Spanish native speaker, fluent in English and has working knowledge of Portuguese.
He is currently advising the UNDP in Latin America on protected area financing and ecosystem valuation. Also, he advises national protected area agencies in Eastern Europe on protected area financial planning. Marlon Flores has directed a variety of protected area finance and sustainable development projects financed by the GEF, UNESCO, UNDP, USAID, Danida, DFID-UK and private donor agencies.
Before joining Ecologic in 2009, Marlon Flores was the Lead Conservation Finance & Policy Advisor of The Nature Conservancy (TNC) at the Head Office in Washington DC., where he worked since 2001. He was responsible for the implementation of TNC’s Global Protected Area Sustainable Finance Strategy. He developed a methodology and standards for protected area financial planning using business principles for result-oriented accounting, feasibility analysis and formulation of business plans. He was the lead author of the recently published manual “Financial Planning for National Systems of Protected Areas”. He also focused on strategies for communicating the contribution of ecosystems to economic growth and equity; and worked with national water agencies in Latin America to improve ecosystem management through pro-biodiversity fiscal policy and water tariffs.
Marlon Flores has made a significant contribution to strengthening national capacity; in addition to a number of regional technical workshops in Latin America, Africa, Asia and Eastern Europe, he directed the innovative global training program “Business Planning for Protected Areas”, delivered to more than 40 countries worldwide. Before working for TNC, he worked as a consultant for the GEF/World Bank, and had full-time positions with CARE Denmark, COWI Consulting Engineers & Planners, and the General Audit Office of Ecuador.
Marlon Flores has an MA in Economics and a Diploma in Development Administration & Management from the Faculty of Economics, IDPM, University of Manchester, UK. He also has a BA in Public & Social Law from the Faculty of Law of the Central University of Ecuador.