Dr. Balvanera was trained as a biologist by the UAM-Iztapalapa, a master of science by the UNAM and a doctor in ecology by the UNAM. She is a Senior Researcher C of T.C. of the Institute of Research in Ecosystems and Sustainability of the UNAM, SNI III and PRIDE D.

Her research interests include the study of the dynamics of secondary tropical forests, the study and mapping of ecosystem services, the dynamics of socio-ecological systems, the values of nature and the transdisciplinary co-construction of fairer and more sustainable food systems.

Dr. Balvanera has 160 primary products that have been cited more than 17,000 times. She has coordinated several national and global group projects and research networks, including the Socioecos network, a global project on plural valuation of nature funded by the global research platform Future Earth, the scientific committee of the Future Earth Ecosystem Change and Society Programme (PECS), and the working group on ecosystem services for global biodiversity monitoring GEOBON. She coordinated the chapter on indirect and direct factors of environmental degradation for the global assessment of the Intergovernmental Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services, IPBES, for which she is co-chair of the assessment on the diversity of nature’s values, coordinating the work of more than 80 authors from 50 countries.

She is currently the academic coordinator of the transdisciplinary project Cocina Colaboratorio for the co-construction of fairer and more sustainable local food systems.

She is editor-in-chief of the journal Ecology and Society.