Leading with Nature: Community Action and Climate Resilience in Puerto Rico

Join Fernando Lloveras MPP 1985, president of Para la Naturaleza, for a conversation on community-centered conservation and Puerto Rico’s evolving approach to climate change resilience and environmental policy. Lloveras will discuss the organization’s work placing citizens and communities at the forefront of ecological practice, as well as the progress and challenges shaping Puerto Rico’s environmental future. The roundtable will be moderated by Rand Wentworth, adjunct lecturer in public policy, who teaches Climate Leadership: Persuasion, Advocacy and Negotiation at HKS each spring.

This event is open to HUID holders only.

More about Mr. Lloveras

Fernando Lloveras San Miguel was born on February 19, 1962, in Santurce, Puerto Rico. He earned a bachelor's degree in Economics and Geography from Dartmouth College and a master's degree in Public Policy, with a concentration in Finance, from Harvard University. He later completed a Juris Doctor at the University of Puerto Rico School of Law and began his professional career as a public policy advisor on federal affairs for the Government of Puerto Rico.

In 1989, he founded Microjuris—an innovative online legal information service—which has received three awards and whose Board of Directors he has chaired since its founding.

In 2002, he was nominated to the Advisory Council of the Puerto Rico Conservation Trust, and in 2003, he was selected by the Trust's Board of Trustees to lead this prestigious organization. Over the following decade, Mr. Lloveras San Miguel drove the diversification of its programming, citizen engagement, and the development of conservation awareness across key public policy sectors. Under his leadership, the Trust became, in 2012, the first Puerto Rican organization admitted to the International Union for Conservation of Nature.

In 2013, the Trust created a new entity, Para la Naturaleza, which places citizens and communities at the forefront of the ecological practices it promotes. Mr. Lloveras San Miguel immediately took on its presidency and raised its governance to the highest ethical and compliance standards, achieving accreditation under the rigorous standards of the Land Trust Alliance (LTA).

Following the passage of Hurricanes Irma and María in 2017 and the years of crisis that followed, Lloveras San Miguel and the Para la Naturaleza team redoubled their reforestation efforts and strengthened community partnerships to work hand in hand on restoring habitats across Puerto Rico's islands.

His leadership has extended beyond the Puerto Rican archipelago. Between 2011 and 2020, he served on the Board of Trustees of the National Trust for Historic Preservation—the leading historic preservation organization in the United States—where he served as Vice Chair of the Board and Chair of the Development and Communications Committee; he is now a Trustee Emeritus of that Board. He also served on the LTA's Board of Directors, actively participating in its Government Relations and Strategic Communications committees. In addition, between 2013 and 2017, he served as Vice President of the Governing Board of the University of Puerto Rico.

Lloveras San Miguel received the prestigious Kingsbury Browne Conservation Leadership Award for 2020–2021, an honor bestowed by the Lincoln Institute of Land Policy and the LTA on leaders whose work has enriched the conservation community. In October 2025, he was elected IUCN Regional Councillor for the Caribbean, and in April 2026, Chair of the Finance and Audit Committee, thereby joining the IUCN Council. His involvement allows Para la Naturaleza to expand its impact beyond the islands of Puerto Rico, helping to position insular Caribbean priorities—such as climate resilience, water security, sustainable tourism, and food sovereignty—within IUCN's global decision-making spaces.