Think Tank Shark Tank competitions are an attendee-favorite part of each of Atlas Network’s Regional Liberty Forums. During these events, three individuals represent Atlas Network grantees on stage to pitch their organization’s project to a panel of judges, explaining why their proposal will have the greatest impact and why they deserve the top prize. This year at Latin America Liberty Forum in Mexico City, judges named Edwin Zarco Nieva (Centro de Investigación, Peru) as the winner of this year's Latin America Think Tank Shark Tank and its US$10,000 grant award.
Centrally-planned and government-instituted environmental protections often fall short, creating unintended consequences and failing to achieve their stated goals. Environmentally-focused entrepreneurship represents a way to advance free-market conservation efforts. Edwin Zarco Nieva pitched his winning “Environmental Entrepreneurship in Action” project, a training program aimed to equip enterprising individuals to take their ideas to market. By analyzing environmental issues through a freedom-oriented lens, entrepreneurs can propose solutions rooted in property rights, individual dignity, and outcome-over-ideology thinking. This socially-conscious entrepreneurship will be a boon for Peruvian communities.