Minister Izabella Teixeira is a career employee of the Brazilian Institute for the Environment and Renewable Natural Resources (Ibama), which she joined in 1984 as an Environmental Analyst. Over her 28 years as a civil servant she has held several high-level management and advisory positions in the federal area. She took office as Minister of the Environment in 2010.

As a result of her notable performance representing the Brazilian Government at the UN Climate Conference in Cancun and the UN Biodiversity Conference in Nagoya, she was invited by the UN Secretary-General to join, in 2010 and 2012, the High Level Panel on Global Sustainability, composed of authorities of another 12 countries. On 24 September 2012, Minister Teixeira was nominated again by the UN Secretary-General to join the High Level Panel on Post-2015 Development, which will propose the new post-2015 development agenda to the UN General Assembly.

Minister Teixeira is continuously recognized as a bold and visionary leader who played a key role in the challenging feat of reversing the deforestation in the Amazon forest, as proven by the achievement of an 84 per cent reduction in deforestation over the last eight years. From an annual loss of 27,772 sq km in 2004 to 4,571 sq km in 2012, this remarkable feat is a tribute to her courage to push against the tide of destruction and is a significant initiative from Brazil on climate change mitigation. Apart from the prevention and control of deforestation, the land use planning policies implemented by her resulted in 250,000 sq km of conservation areas or the equivalent of 75 per cent of the global forest protected areas.

Her long-standing career in the service of the environment was positively marked by the successful hosting by Brazil of the Rio+20 (UN Conference on Sustainable Development) and the 2012 World Environment Day.