Isavibe

Portrait of Isabella in October 2022

Isabella Cortes Lara (Isabella Endémica) (born 10 October 1996) known professionally as ISAVIBE is a rapper, singer, and artist who was born in Popayán, Cauca, Colombia. She creates music in the following musical genres Reggaetón, R&B, Dembow, EDM and Andean New Wave. She has songs such as “Afrodita” and “Agüita de Páramo”, among others.

She is an Environmental activist with multiple years of field work and leadership experience in Colombia. Isabella is a committed feminist challenging social circumstances by advocating for family planning to conserve biodiversity and empower women. Skilled in environmental education, writing, project management, communications, and community involvement. As a creator, ISAVIBE is a prism that refracts her light on what she deeply cares about with a mix of magic realism and psychedelia. Her Artwork appears in murals, galleries, nature reserves and digitally. As a songwriter her sound is dynamic, which has led her to explore various genres and create her own style. She delves heavily in Latin urban, world rhythms, ancestral sounds, free movement, and controversial topics. She is a multifaceted person that strongly advocates for the rights of the LGBTQ community, rights of indigenous communities, reproductive rights, and the conservation of ecosystems.

Early Life

Isabella grew up in four different countries, Colombia, Ecuador, England, and the United States. She is a native of the Colombian Massif, her descendants are primarily from the indigenous ethnic groups of the area, Paez and Yanacona. Isabella has a supernatural connection with nature, which has inspired her career in the conservation of endangered species. Her father Alexander Cortes Diago, also a conservationist, discovered a hummingbird species in 2005 and named it after Isabella. The critically endangered species of hummingbird named after her is called, Eriocnemis isabellae. She promotes the conservation of the Eriocnemis isabellae hummingbird species, also known as Zamarrito del Pinche. Her mother Sara Ines Lara is the founder of Women for Conservation, an organization that empowers women in rural communities with access to conservation education, sustainable economic opportunities, and reproductive healthcare.

Education

She received a Bachelor of Science in Wildlife and Fisheries Management, minor in Conservation Ecology at West Virginia University’s School of Natural Resources and Design. After graduating, she cofounded Women for Conservation with her mother, Sara Ines Lara in memory of her late grandmother Amparo. She is completing a Postgraduate program in Conservation project management with the Durrell Wildlife Conservation Trust. Conservation Career She was the Nature Reserve Subdirector for the ProAves Reserve El Dorado in the Sierra Nevada of Santa Marta and the ProAves Reserve Chamicero de Perijá in the Serrania of Perijá, located in the Colombia-Venezuela border. During the pandemic, Isabella worked with partners in Colombia to implement community-based conservation project in the Sierra Nevada of Santa Marta as a pilot program that is now being implemented in ten other locations throughout the Andes, Caribbean, Choco, Amazon, among other biodiversity hotspots. She continues as the Director of Conservation for Women for Conservation leading awareness programs on climate change, biodiversity, and protecting endemic species while working with communities. She conducted conservation technology training, environmental education and citizen science activities with local community members and forest guards in multiple Fundación ProAves nature reserves. Her five-year plan includes implementing project site on each continent to globalize Women for Conservation. Currently she is the creative director of several projects including the Rana Chiva project a mobile classroom in a traditional bus, part of the education and outreach program about the endemic species of North of Santander, Colombia. She is an active member of Board of Directors of Planet Women and has participated in 100 Women Pathway program designed to help elevate women on their journey to the highest levels of leadership.

Music Career

She composed the song “Agüita de Páramo” to connect all the areas of the Rana Chiva project as part of the marketing and communication strategy to create awareness of the endemic species of North of Santander, Colombia. “Agüita de Páramo” honors the beauty of these water rich habitats that give birth to life and are referred to as the garden of the lichens. She refers to the Páramos as sacred, urging us to protect them because if their voices fade then our existence will be in danger. The “Rana” is referring to Rana Lynchi (Lynch’s Colombian tree frog), an endemic species that was rediscovered by Fundación ProAves after 36 years of the species being thought to be extinct. The “Chango” refers to the Colombian Mountain Grackle, and the “rama de los Robles” is referring to the endangered tree species the Colombian oak. The Lynch’s Colombian tree frog’s song, the trickling water from the Páramo, and the calls from a group of Colombian Mountain Grackles were all incorporated into the music. She incorporated these sounds as tools for sensibilization, to teach individuals to identify the calls, and the importance of protecting these rare species.

She composed “Afrodita” in the Reggaeton genre. Historically, Reggaeton has been marked by machismo and placing women as objects which has spurred controversies. Her objective is to seek change with feminist messages to celebrate women's empowerment and invite us to create a more positive dialogue with the female body and the vulva (la pepita). The song is inspired by the novel Aphrodite by Isabel Allende. Isabella sings about her personal experience with pleasure, sexuality, and her adventurous lifestyle. “Afrodita” gives a sneak peak of Isabella’s deep admiration for the power of psychedelics, as she compares her style to DMT.

Public Engagement

Isabella formed a family planning and sex education program with more than a three hundred participants in the Sierra Nevada of Santa Marta, in association with local women, international and national organizations. Since the launch of the program in the Sierra Nevada, Women for Conservation has held family planning brigades for men and women in the Amazon, Choco, Boyacá and is continuing to grow throughout different regions of Colombia. In the buffer zone surrounding the ProAves Reserve El Dorado, she collaborated with local government and local environmental authorities CORPAMAG in the Sierra Nevada of Santa Marta for a reforestation project in the San Lorenzo watershed. She continues strengthening communications and outreach for Women for Conservation and Fundación ProAves by using her creative power to create original videos, such as video edits, songs, photography, and drone footage. Isabella Represented Women for Conservation at the IUCN World Conservation Congress in Marseille, France 2021 and was interviewed for Populations Matter on the issue of accessibility to family planning in rural communities in Colombia. Showcasing her work, she has presented in Semana, Brevard Zoo, PGAP Podcast, Women & Nature, Female Heroes of Bird Conservation, Bird Like a Girl, among others.

References

Angell, Bryony. 2021. Bird like a Girl. How Women Helping Women Can Drive Bird Conservation. Bird Watcher’s Digest.

Allende, Isabel. 1998 Aphrodite. http://isabelallende.com/en/book/aphrodite/summary

ISAVIBE website. https://www.isavibe.co

ISAVIBE. 2022. Afrodita. https://open.spotify.com/track/3wwSKCs3GWutB9M3szBEOi?si=14f8a45c848a420b

ISAVIBE. 2022. Agüita de Páramo. https://open.spotify.com/track/7skKLT1bbXoV36gU5wJOQW?si=973971ae7b3b4d5f

Brevard Zoo. 2022. Meet Our Newest Conservation Partners. https://brevardzoo.org/meet-our-newest-conservation-partners/

Fundacion ProAves. https://proaves.org

Low, Rosemary. 2022. Female Heroes of Bird Conservation. https://www.rosemarylow.co.uk/female-heroes.html

Mujeres por la conservación, más de 1.300 beneficiarias que cuidan las reservas naturales. Semana. Sept. 5, 2021. https://www.semana.com/mejor-colombia/articulo/mujeres-por-la-conservacion-mas-de-1300-beneficiarias-que-cuidan-las-reservas-naturales/202100/

Planet Women Board of Directors. https://www.planetwomen.org/our-team

Planet Women’s 100 Women Pathway. 2022. https://www.planetwomen.org/100wp-participants

Population Connection. 2022. Presentation with Women for Conservation. https://brevardzoo.org/meet-our-newest-conservation-partners/

Population Matters Interview. 2021. https://populationmatters.org/news/2021/09/talking-population-world-conservation-cong ress

ProAves Reserve Chamicero de Perijá in the Serrania of Perijá, located in the Colombia-Venezuela border. https://proaves.org/reserva-proaves-chamicero-del-perija/

ProAves El Dorado Reserve in the Sierra Nevada of Santa Marta. https://proaves.org/reserva-proaves-el-dorado/

ProAves Rana Chiva Project. https://proaves.org/arranco-la-ranachiva-ya-se-encuentra-en-santander-lista-para-recorrer-el-departamento-y-toda-colombia/

Salvando el Chango de Montaña (Macroagelaius subalaris). 2022. Fundación ProAves. https://proaves.org/salvando-al-chango-de-montana-macroagelaius-subalaris/ Rana Lynchi (Lynch’s Colombian tree frog) https://proaves.org/en/rediscovered-critically-endangered-amphibian-after-36-years-lynchs-colombian-tree-frog/

Video Reserva ProAves El Dorado. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m2-tp8Q9nH4

Women for Conservation. https://www.womenforconservation.org

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