Cristina Larrea

Cristina Larrea is Director, Agriculture, Food, and Sustainability Initiatives for the Economic Law and Policy Program. She has over 20 years of experience working in the fields of economic inclusion and sustainability and supporting Global South populations in situations of vulnerability, including small-scale producers, women, Indigenous Peoples, and agricultural small and medium-sized enterprises. 

At the International Institute for Sustainable Development, she leads and oversees a team that partners with decision-makers across governments and markets to shape and implement practical policies, laws, and strategies that drive more sustainable and equitable agriculture and food systems. Her work focuses on reforming harmful agricultural subsidies, catalyzing finance for climate-positive agriculture, strengthening sustainable markets, and enhancing responsible agricultural investment frameworks. This has contributed to important policy and market shifts that support rural livelihoods, climate action, and nature conservation.

Her career path includes 7 years of grassroots work with Indigenous community-based organizations in the Lacandon tropical rainforest in Chiapas, Mexico. There, she led initiatives for sustainable natural resources management and agroforestry systems, while supporting agri-business development and market access of local economic groups, including to sustainable markets. She also led initiatives to enhance the participatory and inclusive governance of Indigenous Peoples' rural organizations, including strengthening their capacity to protect and advocate for their rights, while advancing women’s empowerment and gender equality. 

In previous roles, Cristina contributed to the development of an internationally recognized framework to measure the social, economic, and environmental impacts of investments in agri-businesses (IRIS+) and has authored and co-authored many publications on economic inclusion and sustainability. Currently based in Montreal, Canada, she has worked in 20 countries across Latin America, Eastern and Southern Africa, Southeast Asia, and the Indian subcontinent. 

Cristina holds a master's degree in international development from the University of East Anglia's School of Global Development and has completed an Executive Development Course at McGill University. She speaks and writes fluently in English, French, and Spanish, and when working in Chiapas, she learned how to speak in Maya Tzeltal.