Ximena Vélez Liendo (born 7 March 1976, Oruro, Bolivia) is a Bolivian conservation biologist whose work focus on the ecology of the Andean bear, known as jukumari in aymara language, and its conservation in Bolivia and the rest of South America.
[6][7] Ximena Vélez Liendo studied Biological Sciences in the Higher University of San Simón in Cochabamba (Bolivia).
While working on her thesis at Carrasco National Park in Cochabamba, she first spotted a bear, which lead her to continue the required research to help the conservation of the specie.
[8][9] In 1999 she moved to Leicester (England, United Kingdom), where she realised her MSc studies in Geographic information systems (GIS) at the University of Leicester studying the deforestation and its social-economic causes in the buffer area of Carrasco National Park (Bolivia).
[12] She is currently working on a project in the dry forests of Tarija (Bolivia) to estimate the population size of the bear using camera traps and study its conflict with humans.