Fernando Trujillo

Dr. Fernando Trujillo is a Marine Biologist and PhD in Zoology who at a very young age founded the NGO Omacha, named after the Tikuna word meaning “dolphin that becomes human to protect his fellows”. Fernando has built a career that has taken him to rivers in America and Asia, and to Antarctica, working on aquatic ecology, endangered species, wetlands, wildlife trafficking, fisheries agreements and management, development of species management plans and protected areas, wildlife monitoring, environmental impact assessments and toxics in aquatic systems.

Fernando is Chair of the Small Cetacean Subcommittee of the International Whaling Commission, member of the IUCN Specialist Group on Cetaceans, Sirenians and Otters and Corresponding member of the Colombian Academy of Physical, Exact and Natural Sciences. Expeditionary and scientific researcher. He has more than 300 publications to his credit, including books, book chapters and indexed journals.

Among the awards he has received are the Whitley Gold Award in 2007, the Chancellor Order of National Merit for his contributions to science and conservation awarded by the Government of Colombia, and the National Geographic/Rolex Explorer of the Year 2024 (Fernando has been a National Geographic Society Explorer since 2006).

Fernando Trujillo’s journey began with a simple, romantic idea: to save the Amazon’s river dolphins. But over the past three decades, his mission has expanded into something much larger—protecting entire river ecosystems, the communities that depend on them, and the Amazon itself.

As a National Geographic explorer and the scientific director of the Omacha Foundation, Trujillo has transformed his early passion for wildlife into a comprehensive strategy for environmental conservation. “I started wanting to protect dolphins,” he recalls, “but soon realized that to save the dolphins, I had to save the rivers, the forests, and the people.” LEARN MORE