Melina is a Brazilian biologist and environmental justice activist, who has always been intrigued by the wonders of nature and all of its inhabitants. She is the co-founder of the Global Youth Biodiversity Network (GYBN), the international youth coordination platform and constituency to the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), where she oversees the network's capacity building & empowerment programmes as well as its engagement in biodiversity governance and decision-making processes under the Convention on Biological Diversity. For the past fifteen years, she has helped establish and develop the network to become a vibrant global youth movement for biodiversity with 1.2 million members and member organizations in over 150 countries, and in 2020 she has been awarded the Midori Prize for Biodiversity, in recognition of her achievements.