Head, Heart, and Hands: Young Leaders in Natural Capital Light the Way

The winners of this year’s Natural Capital Young Leaders Prize all trace a line backward from where they are now, to childhood experiences with nature that shaped their goals in life, and also to the sense of community and collaboration that keeps them pursuing these dreams.

Guillermo Sena, from Uruguay, spent one week every year of his childhood from the time he was four camping at the same special place in the countryside, with a group of family friends. One year he returned, and the river was green. “My paradise was destroyed,” Sena said, as he gave a presentation during an award ceremony at Stanford on August 27, to a room of now-familiar faces: the three winners of this year’s prize attended a two-week course on economics and finance for environmental leadership led by the Conservation Strategy Fund (CSF), and co-hosted by the Stanford-based Natural Capital Project (NatCap). 

More about the prize: Each year, NatCap helps to elevate young leaders advancing a world in which people – in government, the private sector, development banks, NGOs, and communities – recognize the values of nature in supporting human well-being, and routinely incorporate those values in decision-making. The winners this year were selected by three countries NatCap collaborates closely with through the People, Planet, Prosperity (or 3Ps) project. For more detail on this prize, contact NatCap Head of Capacity Development Kim Bonine.   

Sena says the deep sadness he felt when he saw that green river was a turning point for him, making him realize he wanted to work toward solving this kind of problem. Another turning point came about seven years ago when he was feeling lost in his career, and he stumbled upon NatCap’s free online course about natural capital approaches. “I realized this was amazing, and I wanted to do this,” said Sena. 

Today, Sena is working with NatCap as coordinator and environmental valuation specialist for the People, Planet, Prosperity (3Ps) project in Uruguay, helping the country implement its wetland protection law by determining which of its wetlands provide the greatest benefits. He is also nearing the final year of his PhD at Wageningen University, studying ways to use economic incentives and public policy to enhance the effectiveness of nature-based solutions (i.e., using nature to address societal challenges). He told the group at Stanford that he sees himself through three dimensions: his head, or his analytical work (mostly sitting at a computer!); his hands – he and friends are implementing restoration best practices on a piece of rural land; and his heart – he writes and sings songs to express his emotional connection to nature and the world. 

Bridging Science, Practice, and Policy

Like Sena, Abigail Bautista related a strong childhood memory – in this case, of seeing her neighborhood “submerged in water” during one particularly bad typhoon. While flooding is a reality in many parts of the Philippines, particularly in her hometown in Bay, Laguna, she realizes now that this experience turned into purpose and direction. Bautista works at the Ecosystems Research and Development Bureau within the Department of Environment and Natural Resources, serving as ERDB’s lead for natural capital accounting within DENR, working closely with other bureaus and interagency partners (for the basic concepts of natural capital assessment and accounting, watch this two-minute animation).

In this role, Bautista has participated in developing the implementing rules and regulations for the country’s 2024 PENCAS Act, which institutes a national system of natural capital accounting in order to better manage their natural assets – and ensure ecosystems can continue helping to address flooding, water quality, carbon sequestration, and more. She helped ensure that lessons from ERDB’s pilot project with NatCap in the Santo Tomas Watershed, Zambales—including critical findings on instrumentation needs and data gaps identified by ERDB’s watershed team—were reflected in the PENCAS regulations, demonstrating how local field experience can shape national policy..

“Science isn't enough,” said Bautista. “Good intentions are not enough. You need collaboration. You need people to believe you. You need to believe yourself.” She noted that in the two years she has worked on implementing natural capital accounting, she has seen firsthand how technical recommendations must be balanced with broader policy realities. For Bautista, these experiences highlight how policy evolves—through persistence, collaboration, and alignment with shifting national priorities. Recognizing that such work is a long-term, shared effort, she reflected on the importance of sustaining momentum even when progress is gradual. “It is human nature to get tired,” she said. “But it is also part of being human to pass on the baton like a relay. It is okay if you are tired for now: your colleagues will help you [carry it forward].”

 “You need people to believe you. You need to believe yourself.”  –Abigail Bautista, 2025 Natural Capital Young Leaders Prize Winner.

Inspired by togetherness

In Belize, Delwin Guevara has been involved in implementing natural capital approaches in the country for years – first as a GIS (geographic information systems) technician at the Coastal Zone Management Authority and Institute to support the integrated coastal zone management plan, and now as the GIS mapping and spatial analyst for the Belize Sustainable Ocean Plan. CZMAI has collaborated with NatCap throughout, most recently with the 3Ps Belize project. In that time, Belize has taken its place as a global leader in protecting the coastal and marine resources underpinning its economy, and in using innovative finance mechanisms like its Blue Bond to do so.

For more on natural capital approaches in Belize, watch this short film, “Reimagining Prosperity.” 

Guevara too considers his childhood experiences transformational. He regularly participated in river cleanups with his father, who helped lead the group. “As a kid, I saw piles of trash bags that were larger than me.. but what really stuck in my heart was that it was a community effort. Something about that togetherness really triggered me to continue into the environment[al field].” said Guevara. As an adult, he began leading trash cleanups himself, and has seen this pivotal experience transferred to the next generation. Youth he has worked with in past years have returned and said they’re now working in natural resource management because of these cleanups, too.

Gretchen Daily, faculty director and co-founder of NatCap, gave out the awards along with Bonine. Daily described what she saw as the spirit of both the prize and its winners this year: “Aim high. Don’t stop: flow like water (go around, go under..). Learn by doing. Team up with all kinds of people. And do it with love, with friends, with and in nature, and with courage.”

The inspiration and initial funding for the Natural Capital Young Leaders Prize was provided by Charles and Roberta Katz. Get in touch with NatCap’s Head of Capacity Development Kim Bonine for more information. 

CSF’s Economics and Finance for Environmental Leadership two-week course is held annually, and empowers participants with practical tools to innovate and solve conservation challenges around the world.

Gretchen Daily is also a Senior Fellow in the Woods Institute for the Environment, within the Stanford Doerr School of Sustainability, and Bing Professor of Environmental Science in the Department of Biology, within Stanford’s School of Humanities & Sciences. 

Media contact: Elana Kimbrell, elanak@stanford.edu