Asisat Oshoala, Tariye Gbadegesin and 6 Others Named 2026 Women With New Vision for Earth by Global Landscapes Forum

Every year, the Global Landscapes Forum (GLF), a leading knowledge-led platform and community on sustainable landscapes, honours women who are making significant strides in restoring the planet and combating climate change. Despite the challenges posed by climate change, these women are leading efforts to find solutions to one of the world’s most pressing crises. The GLF’s list highlights innovators across diverse fields, including science, technology, art, public policy, sustainable business, environmental activism, journalism, litigation, climate finance, international climate negotiations, and grassroots ecosystem restoration.

This year, GLF is spotlighting eight visionary women from sport to sustainable finance who inspire the world to dream bigger. Remarkably, the Global Landscapes Forum (GLF) unveils its seventh list representing the tenacity and diversity of women from Africa, Latin America and Asia on International Women’s Day to celebrate women across the world.

Meet These Resourceful Women

Alessandra Yupanqui – Co-founder and editorial director of Sapiens.lat

Alessandra Yupanqui is an Indigenous Andean storyteller from Peru who was named one of Forbes’ 30 Under 30 for social impact in 2025. She combines storytelling and journalism to speak out on sustainability and solutions with an Indigenous focus, questioning the status quo on progress and pointing to how humans must understand – and act accordingly – that humanity is part of a web of life, not its owners.

Alessandra says, “Indigenous Peoples must be recognised as strategic partners and co-authors of solutions, not as beneficiaries. Real cooperation is built horizontally and over the long term, transferring resources, information, legitimacy, governance and decision-making spaces. In this, we need each other.”

Asisat Oshoala – Footballer with Al Hilal

Asisat Oshoala is one of Africa’s most decorated women footballers, as well as a philanthropist and climate advocate. She began making history playing in her native country, Nigeria, then in England, China, Spain, the United States and now Saudi Arabia. Through her foundation, the Asisat Oshoala Academy, girls across Africa are breaking barriers and encouraged to become visionary leaders while playing football and taking vocational courses in areas such as digital literacy.

Billie Eilish – Singer-songwriter

Billie Eilish, a singer-songwriter from the United States, is an award-winning musician with a global reach who recently received an Environmental Justice Award. Using her platform, she advocates for climate action and environmental and social justice by challenging wealthy and influential people to act for the planet and using her most recent tour to raise environmental awareness and fundraise for climate causes.

Francia Márquez Mina – Vice President of Colombia

Francia Márquez Mina is a lawyer and social and environmental leader who has advocated for the rights of women, Indigenous Peoples and Afro-Colombians since her early years. Winner of a Goldman Environmental Prize in 2018, her leadership is rooted in courage and care. She has stood against illegal gold mining while encouraging collective action at national and international levels.

Kristel C. Quierrez – 2025 GLF Mountain Restoration Steward and co-founder of UGBON

Kristel C. Quierrez is a teacher and Indigenous leader. She defends the ancestral land of the Dumagat-Remontado people and advocates for Indigenous rights while encouraging youth to protect the Southern Sierra Madre, the country’s longest mountain range.

Kristel says, “I want the world we live in to have unity between people and nature, with respect and balance. I want it to be treated as a living home, not to be owned, but to be cared for. As our ancestors taught us: the land, water, forests, and mountains are not just natural resources but sacred parts of our identity.”

Payal Arora – Professor at Utrecht University and founder of the Inclusive AI Lab

Payal Arora is a digital anthropologist and award-winning Indian author who was listed among the 100 Brilliant Women in AI Ethics 2025. Her work centres on inclusion and equity, as she lifts the voices of often overlooked communities in the Global South and recognises these regions as home to vibrant and innovative youth set to shape the future.

Payal says, “My vision for Earth is one where justice for people and justice for the planet are inseparable. By centring historically excluded ways of knowing and living, we can move beyond narrow Western binaries of market growth versus environmental cost – and imagine futures grounded in care, continuity, and collective survival.”

Retno Marsudi – UN Secretary-General’s Special Envoy on Water

Retno Marsudi served as the first female Minister for Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Indonesia from 2014 to 2024. While advancing the UN’s water and sanitation agenda, she advocates for women and girls who are disproportionately affected by water-related challenges, as well as for climate action, inclusive approaches, global solidarity and the transformative role of technology.

Retno says, “I envision a world that puts water and women’s agendas at the centre of policy, programs and actions. Because empowering women accelerates water solutions, and building water resilience and sustainability protects the planet.”

Tariye Gbadegesin – CEO of the Climate Investment Funds

Tariye Gbadegesin is a member of the leadership councils of the Global Energy Alliance for People and Planet and the Industrial Transition Accelerator’s Mission Possible Partnership. A citizen of Nigeria and the United States, she learned firsthand how degraded wetlands and severe floods affect communities while growing up in the Niger Delta. Her work in finance taught her the power of investment to shift economies and how lasting change is built from the ground up.

Tariye says, “I believe in livelihoods rooted in dignity – low‑carbon, resilient and fair. We have the tools to get there: smarter farming, restored ecosystems, clean energy, and resilient infrastructure. The challenge now is to act boldly and scale what works.”

Visit the Global Landscape Forum to see their full profiles.